


The Star Butterfly Effect

by Xirema



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Drama, Gen, Horror, Psychological Horror, Romantic Drama, cosmic horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:07:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 81
Words: 215,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9209465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xirema/pseuds/Xirema
Summary: When Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz explored a cave in the outerlands of the Mewnie Kingdom, they were only seeking the "Mirror of Sight", an artifact which allows the user to see anything they want by looking into it. But after a near-death experience in the cave, they returned home to discover that something terrible happened while they were gone...





	1. Foreword

 

This story was written between December, 2016, and October, 2017. It is only concurrent with the continuity of SvtFoE up through the end of **Bon Bon the Birthday Clown** , and while efforts were made to try to be canon-compatible with episodes that came out as this was being written, there are necessary and unavoidable divergences.

This story is a mature work of fiction, and while it DOES NOT contain explicit descriptions or depictions of Sexual Content, it does contain graphic depictions of violence and horror imagery, and allusions and references to acts of Sexual Violence. It should go without saying that if any of this might bother you, you definitely should not read this.

This work has finished, and is no longer being updated, though I do appreciate comments, reviews, and [constructive] critiques.

 


	2. Prologue

_First of all, I want to say I'm sorry._

_I definitely didn't want to tell you like this. But the truth is, I'm not brave enough to tell you in person. Actually, if I had been brave enough to tell you in person... I don't know. I guess a part of me thinks all of this could have been avoided. That maybe I could have prevented it._

_You're going to try to blame yourself for this. Don't. I've looked at this every way possible. It's only you, or me. And I'm not going to burden you with this choice. If I made you make this choice yourself, it would agonize and torment you, and even if you made the right choice, you'd punish yourself every single day afterward, doubting your own judgment. I'm sparing you the guilt._

_So I've decided it's going to be me. If it seems like I'm okay with that, it's only because I've resigned myself to this fate. There's no other way. There's no other way._

_You can hate me if you want. That's fine. Because when you're not hating me, you'll be happy. I know you will. That's good enough for me. I know that if it were you instead... I would never have been happy._

_At any rate, there's nothing else for you to do. So you don't need to worry. I'll finish everything. And then you won't have to see or think about me ever again._

_One last thing._

_Don't try to stop me._


	3. TRESPASSING

In the outerlands of the Mewnie kingdom, there ran a canyon that for a long time had served as a defacto-fortification both against invading armies and—in recent years—the monsters scorned by the kingdom. The canyon had been carved from many millenia of water rushing its way to the ocean over loosely packed silt, and as the thousands of years passed, the river seemed to sink into the ground itself, until it eventually took on the form it held today: a slow current of water, the surface of which was almost half-a-kilometer below average land-height of the surrounding kingdom.

Were Mewni to have an active and funded Geological Survey, they most certainly would have taken issue with the composition of the land in this area: Thousands of Kilometers from the ocean, why was the land here so soft? In some respects, the land prior to the passing of the river seemed composed as though it were mewnie-made, yet no known civilized people had been known to have taken up residence in this region in the recorded history the land. Furthermore, even had there been evidence of civilization in these lands, what manner of agriculture or industry would have left the land in this state?

Indeed, it would seem that there were a great deal of mysteries left to be uncovered in these lands.

Unfortunately, those mysteries weren't going to be uncovered today. Because the only Mewnian currently occupying these lands was the fourteen-year-old Mewnian Princess, and solving these mysteries was not on her agenda for the day.

Among the canyon river's bends, a particularly large bend of the river carried the edge of the river a great distance from the Mewnian capital, and on the wide edge of this bend, at the base of the canyon, there was a clearing separating the river from the canyon walls; and a cave which opened further into the underground of the Mewnian outskirts. It was deep in the depths of this cave that Star Butterfly, Mewnian Princess, and her bestie-companion, Marco Diaz of Earth, found themselves.

“It's called the Mirror of Sight.” Star repeated, using a light shone from her Wand to illuminate the Stalactites ( _or was it Stalagmites? I can never remember..._ ).

Marco was carefully testing the floor beneath his feet for unsure footing, only barely keeping up with her, using a large flashlight he'd borrowed from his parents' garage to keep the ground illuminated. “I know what it's called. What I don't understand is why we're risking our lives trying to get it!”

Star approached the fork in the cave's tunnels first, and decisively chose to go to the right fork first. “It's a magic mirror, Marco. Duh! You can look at it, ask it to show you something, no matter what it is, and it'll show it to you.”

“That's it?!” Marco managed to find a stretch of stable ground, allowing him to close the distance between himself and Star.

Sighing deeply, Star stopped and grabbed Marco by the shoulders. “Oh, sweet, innocent Marco. I don't think you understand the applications for such a wonderful device.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“Think about it Marco! If I asked the mirror to show me a Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami sandwich, the mirror would show me exactly that! No longer would I have to ponder what a Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami sandwich would look like!”

Marco stared incredulously at her.

“What?!”

Marco raised a hand to his head. “Couldn't you... I don't know... We have Peanut Butter. And we have grapefruit. And we have Salami. And I'm pretty sure we have bread. Couldn't you just... make the sandwich, and then you'd know what it looks like?”

“Ugh... The sandwich isn't the point, it's just an example! We could ask it to see anything!”

“But—“

Star stamped her foot down. “Stop getting hung up on the details! It'll be great, you'll see!” She then began to move forwards again.

Marco tried to make sure he didn't fall behind her this time. It was a lot easier to find his footing when he was simply mimicking Star's steps through the cave. “Do you at least know where we're going?”

Another fork, this time with three branching paths, presented itself. Star chose the middle path this time, baffling maze-solvers the world over. “Oh, it's easy! We should be only a few minutes away from the room where the mirror is kept!”

“Well, I guess if it's only going to be—“

“Or not.”

“Wait, what?!”

Star grinned back at him. “I mean, logically, any one of these paths should lead to the mirror right? So like back there, there were three paths, right? One of them must lead to the mirror, so we had a 33% chance of picking the right path. And when we hit another fork, one of them will lead to the mirror, so if it's two paths, it'll have a 50% chance of being right, which means we'll be on the 83% correct path! So we'll only need to find one more fork, and we'll have like... a 116% chance of being on the right path!”

“Staaaarrr! That is not how probability works!”

“Oh hush.”

Marco groaned.

Star's smile faded. “Look, you don't need to worry. If we do get lost—“ she whipped out the dimensional scissors as she said this—“we can just teleport home. So don't worry.”

Nodding and smiling, Marco said “Alright. I trust you.” He looked up at Star and saw that there was an unreadable expression on Star's face.

Star quickly turned away to hide a blush, though it's not likely Marco would have seen it anyways, in the dim of the cave.

Finding the room proved to take more than “only a few minutes”, as Star had described it, but after a series of branchs in the cave network, they both observed that they were walking in a very long, straight tunnel, towards a room which appeared to be dimly lit.

As they got closer, eventually they were able to make out that it was an Antechamber of sorts. Many paths crossed through this room, and in the center was a pedestal, from which shone a soft white light. As they got close enough to touch it, they realized that the object they were searching for was apparently suspended above the pedestal, barely within grasping distance.

The mirror was shaped like a large Personal Mirror, with the main Glass-like reflective pane about the size of Star's head. A white, crystal-lattice structure composed the frame of the mirror, and it folded down towards the handle, which appeared to be made of a smokey-quartz-like material. In most respects, no one would doubt that this was, in fact, a mirror—or at least that it appeared to be—except for two unusual traits. The first was that neither Marco nor Star could see their own reflections in the glass pane. And secondly, between the handle and the primary glass pane, there were several rectangular panes of glass. These too did not reflect Marco or Star's appearance.

“Marco.”

“What?”

“I think this is it.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

They both stared at it for a few seconds, before they both said at the same time:

“How much do you bet it's booby-trapped?”

Marco pensively raised up his hand and began to swipe it around the vicinity of the mirror, checking for wires and also trying to inspect if anything was reacting to his hand. He quickly ran his hand between the mirror and the pedestal, and didn't detect anything present that was holding the mirror up.

“Marco.”

“What?”

“I'm going to grab it.”

“Uhh...”

“If I die, tell my mom I love her. And tell my dad that I always knew he was the one wearing the costume during the Solstice gift-giving ceremony, but I pretended to think he was an archon because I thought I'd stop getting presents if I admitted I knew the truth.”

Marco blinked several times in response to this statement.

Star grabbed the mirror by its handle, and pulled it towards her. The mirror resisted her pull, as though it were being held in place by a magnetic field, but as she pulled it towards herself, she felt the force on the mirror wane, until it was no longer being acted upon.

Star examined the mirror, looking at it from different angles. The pedestal continued to give off a soft white light.

Star shrugged. “I guess that's it. We got it.” She turned around to face Marco. “I guess we can—“ her jaw dropped and her eyes widened, in abject terror.

Marco immediately tensed up when he saw her expression, and as he turned around to look behind himself, he reacted similarly: “Star? What's the matter? What are you—“

Behind the two of them, at the entrance of the tunnel where they had entered from, stood a creature, quite obviously several times their combined heights, and larger laterally than in its height. It was impossible to tell exactly what it was; it's shape was ill-formed, and when they tried to light it up with their respective light sources, the creature didn't appear to illuminate, as though it were absorbing all the light.

The creature had been silent up until this point, but now that they saw it, it emitted a lurching growl, which shook the ground beneath their feet. It was difficult to tell, but it now appeared as though it was about to lunge towards them.

Star quickly stashed the mirror in her backpack. “Okay, I think we need to get out of here!” She whipped the scissors out and began to cut open a portal back to Earth. Except there was no portal.

“Uhh, Star? We need that portal!”

“I'm... Trying!” Star tried to cut open a portal several times, and not only did a portal fail to appear, but to Star, it felt like she was wielding perfectly ordinary scissors. Normally, when she cut open portals, there was a weight and friction to the act, as though she were cutting through thick paper. But here, it literally felt like she was simply trying to cut the air. “They're not working!”

“Well, then we need to run, because—oof!” The creature lunged at Marco, striking him in the chest and battering him backwards across the Antechamber.

“Marco!” Star cried out, putting away the scissors and waving her wand at the creature. She was able to unleash a Narwhal blast at the creature, which told her that her wand, at least, was working down here; but the creature didn't seem particularly phased by the attack. Thinking quickly, Star conjured up what she thought was going to be a distraction, in the form of a pair of extremely cute racoons who began to scurry around the creature, but the creature ignored them entirely and lunged at Star. It swiped at her, and she too felt the impact against her chest, knocking her backwards in Marco's direction.

The first thing Star noticed was that the attack was much, much more painful than it should have been, given how far back it had thrown them. Star had suffered beatdowns far worse from Ludo's minions, and thrown ragdoll-style far further by the same; but for some reason, the attack felt like it was stinging her through her whole chest. Like she had been electrocuted.

As the creature reared to lunge towards them again, Star turned to Marco, who was stirring. Humans weren't quite as sturdy as Mewnians, though his karate practice had helped him keep up with her.

“Marco! Are you okay?!” Star screamed, her voice more emotional than she had intended.

“I... I think so. But it did something... My chest won't stop burning...”

Star sat up and looked back at the creature. She cast a quick spell, and the creature, who had begun charging at them again, was thrown off course and smashed into a buttress separating two of the tunnels on the opposite side of the room. “Me too... I don't know what it's doing, but we really need to get out of here. My magic is barely working on it, and the dimensional scissors aren't working in here.”

Marco tried to stand up, but he lost his balance, and fell, grabbing Star by her midsection to steady himself, his hand briefly coming into contact with Star's hand, which she had placed below her chest to try to alleviate the pain.

What happened next happened almost instantaneously, but Star, being the only person who was looking at the creature when it happened, was the only one of the two who remembered the whole sequence.

The first thing that happened, at the exact moment Marco's hand came into contact with Star's, is that the creature let out a bloodcurtling screech. It was louder and more horrifying than anything Star had ever witnessed before, occupying every extreme of the sound spectrum, and possibly frequencies that shouldn't even exist. The very ground seemed to crack and tremble as the screech rang out, and Star felt like she was hearing sounds at pitches she'd never heard before.

The next thing that happened is that the creature was immediately illuminated entirely, as though from within, and she could see the creature for what it truly was: an abomination. No... An Abomination didn't even begin to describe it. IT had the appearance as though it were a creature made up solely out of the internal organs of thousands of other creatures. A mass of exposed muscles and ligaments. Sacs and vessels, which even in the instant in which this all took place, appeared to “beat” arrhythmically. Near where Star thought it ought to have had a head, instead all she saw were hundreds of appendages, each uneven. Here the muscles were penetrated with what appeared to be thousands of bone shards, leaking blood and viscera from the wounds. In its midsection, were rows and rows of orifices. Some of them were covered in thousands of razorblades of bones, as though they were mouths; yet in others, those same orifices gave way to what appeared to be _eyes_ , except the irises were warped and twisted and gashed through.

It was in the next moment that Star could _smell_ it. It was like Rancid Pus. The taste of her own vomit, but made to hang in the air. The stench overwhelmed Star, threatening to overload her senses and force her to blackout—

Until the next instant, when without any fanfare, it was all gone. The creature was all gone. The smell was gone. The pain in her chest was gone. The screech didn't just stop; it didn't even echo, as though the sound had existed only inside their minds. As though she had been listening to music, and had the cord pulled out from the device.

And then, in the last instant, they were both simply kneeling in the chamber.

Marco, having not been looking at the creature, was the first to regain his wits. He shook himself, saying out loud “What... WAS THAT?!” He turned to look at Star. “Hey, Star, you okay?”

Star didn't move, except to tremble. Her face was locked in the same position it had been before he had collapsed on her. Her mouth closed, her eyes as wide as it was physically possible to open them, staring blankly into the space where the creature had been, her pupils glazed over and unfocused.

“Hey, Star? Star? STAR?!” With this last proclamation, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly.

At this, Star suddenly took a sharp intake of breath, and her senses returned to her, her eyes darting wildly around the room. “What... Where...” She looked around, getting her bearings. “Wait...”

She reached into her backpack. The Mirror was still there, in the same state as when they had retrieved it.

She put it away, and looked at Marco. Her expression had softened, but she still looked visibly shaken. “How long was I...?”

Marco shook his head. “Just a few seconds. What WAS that?”

“I... I have no idea. I didn't read anything about a creature like that when I learned about the mirror. I...” Tears started to well up in her eyes. “Oh my gosh! That thing... It... And the scissors didn't work... And I...” She looked at Marco, a guilty look in her eyes. “It could have killed you.”

Marco shuffled around awkwardly. “I mean... It could have killed you too.”

Star threw herself around him, hugging him close. “I'm so sorry! What was I thinking? I...”

“Star. Star. It's okay. Look, we just need to find our way out of here, okay? The Creature seems to be gone.”

Star nodded and separated herself from him. She pulled out the scissors to test if they were working, but they still didn't work. “We need to find the entrance, I think.”

Marco nodded and they both stood up. Holding hands, they began to walk back in the direction they came from.

Strangely, despite all the twists and turns they had taken to get to this point, there didn't appear to be any branching paths anymore. Star was about to suggest they turn around a find a different route, when she noticed that there was a bright light in front of them, one that was colorful and natural. As they got closer, she saw that it was, indeed, the bend of the river from which they had entered the cave.

The moment they exited the cave, Star felt the weight return to the scissors, and testing immediately, she was able to cut open a portal back to Earth.

Stepping through, Star and Marco emerged back in the Diaz's living room, where they had left from.

They were not expecting to see the King and Queen of Mewnie in that room.

Nor were they expecting to see several police officers, some of whom were Earth-based, some of whom were Mewnie-based. They did expect to see the Diaz's, but not with the shocked and worn expressions on their faces.

“Hey guys, we're back!” Star said, trying to mask her latent horror with a cheerful expression.

Queen Moon stared at the two of them for a brief moment, before breaking into tears, and screaming “Oh my god, they're back!” as she ran towards her daughter.

Star received her mother's hug with a baffled expression on her face. “Wha... What's going on? Of course we're back!”

Angie approached the two of them, running to hug her son. “We were so worried! We had no idea what happened to the two of you!”

Marco patted his mother awkwardly. “Mom, we were only gone a few hours! I mean heck, I was gone longer when Toffee kidnapped me! What made you think we were missing?”

Both Angie and Moon gave the pair a bewildered expression. Moon was the first to speak. “Star, don't you know how long you've been gone?”

The color drained from Star's face. “What do you mean? We left this afternoon, and we just now got back.”

Moon had a grave look on her face. “Honey... You've both been missing for a _month_.”

  



	4. RATIONALIZING YOUR SINS

Star's first task, after learning that they had been gone not a few hours, but in fact, a whole month, was coming up with a way to tell her mother the truth without actually telling her the truth.

Marco was incredulous at the assertion, and refused to believe it.

"Are you joking?" Marco laughed, expecting for the others to break out in laughter any moment.

Queen Moon furrowed her brow at Marco. "Who would joke about something like that? How do you think you could vanish for a whole month without anyone noticing?!"

Marco got indignant. "We didn't, which is why we weren't gone for a month. We literally just left this morning, and got back now."

Star was quiet during this exchange. She remembered the same events as Marco, for sure. But there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, telling her to distrust her own senses. A lot about that cave didn't make sense. They'd navigated a veritable labyrinth trying to find the room where the mirror was kept, but when they tried to leave, they'd followed a single narrow tunnel that had no branches or even many features to speak of to the exit. And they'd spent literal hours simply getting to that room, but they managed to leave in only a few minutes walking in one direction.

The cave had to be self-rearranging. That was the easiest explanation, even if such a phenomenon was unheard-of. But they were well into the realm of the impossible, and once you accept that the impossible was, indeed, possible, you could start to make guesses.

But _a whole month_? Star didn't remember passing out, or even getting trapped at any point. How could they have lost a whole month in that cave?

Star first thought about that moment when she touched Marco, and the creature immediately vanished. It had lasted an instant, but Star also recalled Marco shaking her awake. She didn't remember passing out, but she must have been stunned by something, and didn't feel it. All it would take is for Marco to have been stunned similarly, and for whatever reason, he woke before she did. Maybe they were just sitting there, stunned by the creature, for a whole month?

But that left further discrepancies. For starters, they were still wearing the same clothes, and their clothes weren't obviously dirty. Neither of them were hungry or thirsty, never mind the fact that a whole month sitting in one place without eating or drinking would have certainly killed them, through dehydration first. Both of them had eaten and used the bathroom before they left; at what point did her bladder and intestines evacuate themselves that even at this moment, she felt no need to use the restroom?

Marco by this point had pulled out his phone, trying to appeal to the date/time on it to prove that they hadn't been gone a whole month. He had forgotten, unfortunately, that mobile devices synchronize themselves to servers on the internet, and the moment he turned the phone's screen on, he saw only a glimpse of the old time/day on his phone before it updated, erasing whatever proof there might have been that they were only gone a few hours.

That added another question to Star's mind: How did his phone stay charged that whole time? Even the most efficient phones lose power over that duration, and Marco hadn't turned his phone off. It still had half its battery life left.

The evidence mounted into Star's first hypothesis: That she and Marco passed through some kind of "Time Bubble", where they were frozen in time while the rest of the world advanced without them. Basically the reverse of when she and Marco had frozen time for everyone else. That wasn't too ridiculous, right?

It did leave a few unanswered questions, of course: namely, _how_? They didn't experience any such effect being cast or dispelled from them, so when exactly was it applied? And, more importantly to the situation they were in, _how would they prove it_? Her mother was getting increasingly agitated by Marco's excuses, and the only way—

" _The Lasagna,"_ Star both thought and said out loud at the same time.

Marco and Moon both looked at Star. "What?" Moon inquired.

Star took off her backpack and opened it up. "Marco's dad's Lasagna!"

Raphael blinked confusedly at Star's outburst. "Eh. What?"

Star reached for the plastic container inside her backpack. "I took some of your dad's lasagna with us so that we could have a snack if we were out long. Remember, Marco, he made us lasagna this afternoon for lunch?"

Marco quickly worked out what that meant. "Wait, you had that the whole time? I told you I was starving!"

"I know, I know. But if we were really gone a month..." Star lifted the container out of her backpack. It was room temperature, but the lasagna inside still looked like lasagna. "Even if I refrigerated this, there's no way it would still be edible." Star opened the container, and was greeted by the familiar smell of Raphael's lasagna. She ran to the counter, past Marco's parents, and grabbed a fork, handing it to Angie. "Marco's Mom. You've known your husband for years. Can you confirm that this is indeed his lasagna, that it hasn't spoiled, and that it hasn't been refrigerated or preserved in any way?"

Angie was still perturbed by the sudden reappearance of Star and Marco, but trusting that Star was leading up to something, she took the fork and sampled the lasagna. Her face wrinkled for a brief moment, and Star had a moment of panic, where she wondered if this test wasn't going to work.

Angie turned to her husband. "You added too much salt."

Raphael grinned. "I know honey, you already told me... A month ago." His grin quickly vanished as realization passed over him.

Moon wasn't impressed. "And what does this prove, Star? You were still gone a whole month!"

Star turned to her mom. This was where she needed to be careful navigating her first task. "Mom. I think Marco and I passed through a Time Bubble."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"I've presented the evidence. That lasagna was not refrigerated. It's as you'd expect it to be if it were only a few hours old. Look at myself and Marco. Our clothes are still clean and in the same state they were when we left."

It was at this moment that Star remembered being attacked by the Creature. Their clothes _shouldn't be_ in the same state as before. Surely their clothes would be a little ripped from the attack? But a brief survey of herself and Marco told her that their clothes were not worn any more than they were when they put them on, and Star needed to avoid that part of the story anyways, so she ignored it.

"There's no other explanation"

Moon seemed to finally believe it. "Okay, I concede that that explains a lot." But her expression hardened. "But _how_ , Star? What were you and Marco doing that put the both of you in a Time Bubble?"

Star averted her gaze slightly. She hadn't yet worked out how to explain this, and needed to come up with something on the fly. "Ludo."

Marco had an uneasy look on his face when she said this. He knew, same as she did, that this explanation was going to have a lot of holes in it, and it would only take Moon finding the right one to sink the story.

But this wasn't the first time Star had had to lie to her mother. "I was trying to teach Marco how to ride a Warnicorn, when he attacked us. He didn't put up much of a fight, but instead fled after I'd taken out some of his guys. We would have just let him go, but he took my backpack, and we chased after him to a cave."

This, Star had learned through lots of practice, was how to successfully lie to her mother. Moon was good at telling when Star was lying. She was a mother; mothers had a second-sense for that sort of thing, and Star, being a person who wears her emotions on her sleeve, was not a great liar to begin with. So the key to telling a convincing lie was to tell the truth, but with a lie to establish the premise. Moon might have suspected that something was wrong with the notion of Star being attacked by Ludo. But once Star began to explain the cave, its layout, how they quickly got lost trying to navigate it, how the dimensional scissors weren't working to get them out (oops! She wasn't supposed to know about the scissors! But that's okay, because it comes across as honest and makes the story believable), it being the bulk of the story and the core of what happened, it sold the core of the story as "we were attacked, entered a cave, and something about the cave wasn't right". Star left out the Mirror, and the Creature that attacked them, along with references to the Antechamber they found, because that would have betrayed the lie of the initial premise.

"... Anyways, once we got my backpack back, we walked out. It didn't seem like we were in there for more than an hour, but that must have been Ludo's plan: to lure us in there, so we'd get stuck in time." Star concluded, adding "I'm so sorry. We should have called you the moment he ran off; at least then you would have known where we were."

Moon sighed, and hugged her daughter. "Alright. I'm glad you're okay. However." She held out her hand. "You shouldn't have had those scissors. I don't know where magic caves that freeze time exist, but I do know there are far fewer of them on Earth. You are not to leave this dimension again, understand?"

"Yes," Star said, placatingly. She handed the Scissors over to her mother. "But Ludo still attacks us here on Earth sometimes!"

Moon nodded. "We'll be assigning Royal Guards to your neighborhood. If he ever tries to attack again, they will deal with it instead of you.

Marco was shocked by this outcome. Surely there had to be more to it? This was a really big deal; were they only going to get a slap on the wrist?

Moon stood up proper. "So here's the deal, Star."

_Oh there's the kicker,_ Marco thought.

"This incident might not have been your fault, but you've still been quite careless. I'm taking away your Dimensional Scissors, but I need a promise from you. That for the remaining duration of your stay on Earth, you'll forgo any future Adventures. No more hunting Monsters, no more random excursions, even back to Mewnie. From now on, if you want to come home, you'll do so by calling us, and with the royal guard escorting you. And you're forbidden to ever leave the protective range of the Royal Guard, or else you'll have your wand taken away. Do I make myself clear?"

Star swallowed and nodded. "I promise."

Moon sighed. "Alright. River. We need to return home and inform our people of the good news." She took the Dimensional Scissors she had confiscated from Star, and used them to cut open a portal. River stepped through the portal along with the Mewnian police officers while Moon stood beside the portal, waiting expectantly. After a few minutes, two members of the Mewnian Royal Guard stepped back out. Moon addressed them briefly: "River explained everything to you?"

"We're to monitor this neighborhood, with special attention to this house, and keep it safe from intruders."

"Correct. I'll be dispatching as many as six other Guards to aid you. Please get to work immediately."

Moon turned to Star.

"Alright, Star. This is where I take my leave. I love you. Please do not get into any more trouble."

Star grinned. "I promise! I love you too!"

Moon smiled, then stepped through the portal, closing it behind herself.


	5. THAT WHICH KNOWS THE TRUTH

Both of Marco's parents crowded around him again, trying to make sure he was okay.

"Come on, guys, I'm fine. Like Star said, we weren't in any danger, we just had something weird happen."

Angie nodded. "I know, sweetie. But we were still so worried for you. You don't know what it's like, finding out both you and Star were gone, without any explanation or trace of where you went."

"Yeah, I..." Marco's eyes widened. "Oh god. Jackie! If I was actually gone for a whole month, did she—"

His mother patted him on the shoulder. "We texted her the moment you two appeared. She's on her way here. Actually, she should be here pretty—"

There was a knock at the door. Marco ran to the door, and saw Jackie was standing there when he opened it, her skateboard kicked up against her thigh. She was visibly out of breath. "I came as soon as I heard. Are you okay?"

Marco smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm totally fine. Er, sort of. It's kind of a long story."

"What happened?"

Marco scratched his shoulder. "This is a little difficult to explain, but basically, during an adventure with Star, we got stuck in a... What did you call it, Star?"

There was no response.

"Star?" Marco turned around, but Star wasn't standing in the living room anymore. He heard a faint sound of a door closing upstairs, indicating that she had gone to her room. "... Huh. Anyways," he said, turning back to Jackie, "we got stuck in some kind of—Time Bubble, that was the word she used—and we were basically stuck in time for a whole month. From our perspective, it's like the last month didn't even happen. For me, it's like it's still a month ago."

"Oh." Marco wasn't quite sure why, but this answer seemed to make her happier than she was before. "I was so worried."

"Yeah. I'm so sorry. I'd like to say I would have texted you or called you or something, but again, neither of us even realized something like this had happened until we got back."

Jackie suddenly had a serious, slightly guilty look on her face. "So... You haven't seen your text messages yet?"

"No, why?" Marco suddenly became aware of the fact that his phone had been vibrating, and when he checked it, he realized he was only now receiving a month's worth of text messages, the bulk of which had come from Jackie. Along with many "Missed Call" notifications.

"So... There was a rumor going around. That you and Star had... Eloped. I didn't believe them," she added quickly, throwing up her hands, "at first, but, um. You weren't responding, and I was having a particularly bad day about a week ago, and all that stuff wasn't helping. So I started texting you and calling you, trying to see if anything would get to you, demanding to know the truth. If I'd have known, I..."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "What are you trying to say?"

Jackie lowered her face. "I said some kind of mean things in some of those texts and voice mails. So... I'd really like it if you'd see to forgiving me for some of the nastier stuff."

Marco smiled. "Tell you what."

He navigated his phone to his texting app and selected the numerous text messages he'd received from Jackie, and hovered his finger over the delete button.

"How about I just delete them? It'll be like they never happened."

Jackie pondered his offer for a moment. Then she smiled. "Alright. I'm okay with that."

Marco deleted the messages.

Jackie walked up and hugged him.

"So... What's been going on in the last month?"

* * *

 

Star retreated from the room as soon as Jackie got there. She wasn't really sure why Jackie had irritated her so much lately, but she really didn't want to deal with it now. When she got to her bedroom, she took off her backpack, set it down by the door, and looked around the room.

There were dirty footprints on the floor, indicating that people had been in here. Most of her stuff was still sitting where she had left it the morning before, though everything now had a thin layer of dust on it. Even if she hadn't felt it, there was no longer any doubt that a month had indeed passed her by.

With a quick wave of her wand, the dirt and dust was cleaned from the room, and Star flopped down onto her bed.

_"This is my fault_ ", was the first lucid thought that came to her mind. She looked out one of her windows and saw the sun was setting. _"All for a stupid mirror"_. Star suddenly sat up.

She walked over to her backpack and pulled the mirror out. It was in the same state she remembered it being in. "We went to a lot of trouble to get you,", she said out loud, as though talking to the mirror. "You'd better have been worth it."

She held it up until the non-reflective glass pane was facing her. "Okay... So how do you work?"

As though the mirror were responding to her, the glass pane appeared to shimmer as she finished speaking, until a series of unknown glyphs appeared. They appeared to be organized into a paragraph, but Star definitely couldn't read them. "Uhh. Can't you at least say something in a language I understand?"

To this, the glyphs shimmered, until, written in plain English, the phrase was displayed.

"ERROR 00000001 DEVICE_NOT_CALIBRATED: THIS DEVICE WILL REFUSE TO FUNCTION IF IT HAS NOT BEEN CALIBRATED WITHIN 3,600,000 SECONDS. PLEASE CALIBRATE DEVICE BEFORE USE. WARNING: CAUSAL ANALYSIS REQUIRES REPEATED AND REGULAR RECALIBRATION. FAILURE TO PROPERLY CALIBRATE WILL LEAD TO MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN READINGS AND ANALYSIS. PLEASE DO NOT PERFORM REPEATED CAUSAL ANALYSIS ON DEVICE WITHOUT IMMEDIATELY RECALIBRATING, UNLESS YOU ARE AN ADVANCED USER AND UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS. RECALIBRATION IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT ESSENTIAL, WHEN PERFORMING NON-CAUSAL ANALYSIS."

Star blinked. It was definitely in a language she understood. But she was no closer to actually understanding what it was _saying_. "What does Calibration do?"

"CALIBRATION ASSIMILATES ALL KNOWN CHRONOLOGICAL AND SPACIAL DATA INTO THIS DEVICE'S DATABASE TABLES."

Star binked again. "Fine, whatever. Start Calibrating."

"NOW CALIBRATING. 0.0000" displayed on the mirror. A moment later, it updated to "NOW CALIBRATING. 0.0001" and then it updated to "NOW CALIBRATING. 0.0002".

Star stared at the mirror. "Uhh. Can you show me something now?"

Beneath the calibration message, a new message appeared that read "THIS DEVICE CANNOT ACCEPT ANY ANALYSIS REQUESTS UNTIL CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE." The mirror was now at calibration "0.0009".

Star closed her eyes and ran her fingers across her forehead. She then set the mirror down. "Alright, you do that." She brought a hand up to her head, rubbing the temple of her forehead. She laid back down onto her bed, draping her arm over her eyes. "What a piece of junk."

There was a knock at her door. "Star?" It was Angie.

"Yeah?"

"I've made dinner for all of us. Why don't you come down?"

Star smiled. Some food would definitely help. "Okay!"

She jumped up from her bed and walked towards the door. Before leaving, she flipped the mirror upside-down.

Jackie was still there. She was apparently staying for dinner. Star sighed before putting on a smile. "Hey Jackie!"

"Hey Star!" Jackie smiled at her. "Where have you been?"

Star shrugged. "I just needed to lay down. It's a little shocking to come home and find out you've been gone a whole month, you know?"

Jackie looked thoughtful at this suggestion. "Yeah, I guess it would be."

Marco grinned. "Tell Star what happened while we were gone."

Marco's parents began to place plates of food in front of them as Marco said this.

Jackie clapped her hands. "Oh, right! So Star, you know how Janna is into all that weird occult stuff? Well, when we heard that you two were missing, she got this idea..."

As Jackie continued to talk, Star ate up her food listlessly, staring at Jackie. She wasn't paying attention to the story, as something had begun to bother her, as she stared at Jackie, and the more she stared, the more it bothered her, in a feedback loop of irritation. Star was beginning to wonder why it hadn't bothered her before.

Was Jackie always this ugly?

Star could have sworn she was nicer looking before. After all, it's not like Marco would have fallen for her if she were this ugly. Though it could just mean Marco has bad taste in women. It wouldn't shock her. But as she looked at Jackie, Star could feel the sensation gnawing on her. Jackie was seriously hideous to look at. Her misshapen nose, her eyes, one looking ever so slightly further to the left than the other was to the right. And what was going on with her mouth? Mouths weren't shaped like that, in that perfect oval. It was unsettling to look at. And then there was the mole on her cheek, practically half as big as her eyes, an irritating—

Wait. Jackie didn't have a mole.

Star blinked several times as she was shaken from her stupor. Jackie was still telling her story, but wasn't looking Star's way at the moment.

Jackie looked normal. She didn't have a mole, just a handful of freckles. She was her normal, quite attractive self.

Star felt strange. Why did she suddenly think that Jackie was ugly?

"... and let's just say, I doubt Miss Skullnick is going to be eating another banana for awhile!"

Star chuckled, having not heard any of the story, but wanting to be polite.

* * *

 

When Star returned to her room after dinner, she picked up the mirror and saw the message "CALIBRATION COMPLETE. 1.0000".

"Alright." She thought for a moment about what to have it show her. "Show me... A Peanut-Butter Grapefruit Salami sandwich!"

The glass pane of the mirror began to shimmer for a few seconds. Star grinned as it continued to work. However, when it stopped, it simply showed a large red 'X' in the glass pane. Below, in one of the small panes of glass, a number appeared, simply reading "1.0000".

Star's grin faltered. Then she gritted her teeth. "SERIOUSLY?! After everything we went through, you don't even work?!"

The mirror didn't do anything, spiting her.

Star threw the mirror at the ground. It clattered loudly. Surprisingly, it didn't break, or even seem to take any damage from this, and instead left a visible dent in the floor. Star placed her head in her hands. "You've got to be kidding me."

There was a knock at her door. Marco said through the door, "hey, can I come in?"

Star looked at the door. "It's open."

Marco stepped inside. Star felt her heart lighten a little when she saw him. "Hey Marco."

Marco smiled warmly, but his smile faded when he saw the mirror on the ground. "I thought I heard you throw something." He knelt down to pick it up. "What's the matter?"

"It doesn't work."

He frowned and examined it. "How is it supposed to work?"

"You ask it to show you something, and it shows it to you."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Show me Jackie."

Star felt a flush of irritation. "Why would you—"

Marco blinked at the mirror, and flipped it around to show Star. "Seems to work for me."

"What?" Star looked at the mirror, which was currently showing what looked like a video feed of Jackie skateboarding in the night. The second pane was still showing "1.0000".

"She just left, and is skateboarding home. So I guess this thing shows us stuff in real-time. Show me my mom."

The glass pane shimmered again. It showed Angie in the kitchen, both she and Raphael were working on cleaning the dishes. The number still read "1.0000".

"How come it works for you, but not for me?" Star exclaimed, feeling less irritated, but only slightly.

Marco raised an eyebrow. "What did you ask it to show you?"

"A Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami Sandwich!"

Marco sighed exasperatedly. "Seriously? Your sole evidence for it not working was a rediculous request?" He looked at the mirror. "Show me a Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami Sandwich."

What Star noticed this time is that the mirror took longer fulfilling this request than it had to show Jackie or Marco's mother. The end result was the same, though: a big red 'X'.

"Star, you clearly just asked to see the wrong thing. Show me a Peanut-butter Sandwich."

The glass pane shimmered, and then a generic-looking peanut-butter sandwich appeared in the glass.

Star now felt embarassed at her blunder. It was a really obvious mistake too: why didn't she just ask for something simpler?

Marco flipped the mirror around in his hand. "I wonder if this thing can only show things that exist. Your request didn't work because nowhere in the universe does a Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami Sandwich exist."

Star folded her arms. "The universe is a big place!"

"And yet, the PBGS does not exist anywhere. It is not a thing, nor has it ever been a thing."

Star rolled her eyes and fell back onto her bed.

Marco frowned. "Wait a minute..." He looked at the mirror. "Show me what a Peanut-butter Grapefruit Salami Sandwich would look like if Star were to make one."

The mirror once again took a longer time to shimmer. But this time, it was able to render a sandwich. It had peanut butter on it, along with grapefruit wedges and salami slices tucked into the middle. It was also cut into the shape of a heart.

"There we go! Okay Star, you want to see your PBGS?"

Star snapped up, and when she saw the sandwich, she broke out into a wide grin. "Marco, you're a genius!"

Marco chuckled.

Star grabbed the mirror from Marco's hands, but before she could ask the mirror to show something else, she noticed that the second glass pane no longer showed "1.0000", but was instead showing "0.0528". On top of that, all but the last of the remaining glass panes now each had 2 pink triangles on them, one each facing right, the other each facing left. The ones at the top had the largest triangles, and the ones at the bottom had the smallest triangles. Then, below those, there was a single set of blue triangles, one facing to the left, the other facing to the right, and between them, read the number "00000".

"What do these arrows do?" Star inquired to the mirror.

"I have no idea." Marco said, shrugging.

"I was asking the mirror!"

Marco walked beside her. "Wait, you can just ask it questions like that?"

"Apparently."

The mirror finished shimmering, and the display read "WHEN PERFORMING CAUSAL ANALYSIS, PINK ARROWS ALLOW ADJUSTING OF THE GRANULARITY OF THE CAUSAL PREDICATE, MEASURED AS THE CAUSAL COEFFICIENT. HIGHER NUMBERS REDUCE GRANULARITY IN EXCHANGE FOR INCREASED CERTAINTY. LARGER ARROWS WILL INCREASE OR DECREASE GRANULARITY BY LARGER INTERVALS THAN SMALLER ARROWS. THE BLUE ARROWS ALLOW CYCLING AMONG POTENTIAL CAUSAL PHASES. THIS WILL ALWAYS RESULT IN INCREASED GRANULARITY, AS CYCLES ARE ORDERED DESCENDING BY THE CAUSAL COEFFICIENT."

"Uhh." Marco emitted, staring blankly at the mirror. "Is there a simpler explanation? You know, for idiots?"

Star got indignant. "Hey!"

"Relax Star. I'm including myself when I say that. I have no idea what this means."

Star held up the mirror. "Show us a simpler explanation for how those buttons work."

The mirror didn't respond, it simply continued to show the message.

Marco began to pace the room. "Okay. Casual analysis. So I guess—"

"Causal."

"What?"

Star stared intently at the message. "It doesn't say 'Casual', it says 'Causal'".

Marco's face scrunched up. "Like... As in 'Causality'? Like Cause and Effect?"

"Maybe."

Marco tapped the floor for a few seconds. He then walked up to the mirror. "Show me Star Butterfly."

Star gave him a perplexed look, as the mirror shimmered for the briefest of moments, before showing Star in the mirror, looking at the mirror. The mirror inside the mirror was blank. The number on the second panel read "1.0000", and no buttons were present. "Marco, what are you trying to do?"

"Alright," Marco said, cracking his knuckles. "Show me Star Butterfly, in ten years, as an adult."

Star's eyes widened slightly. Was this something she wanted to see?

The mirror's primary panel shimmered briefly, before showing Star, looking considerably older. The hearts on her cheeks were gone, but she looked content. She was wearing a regal gown that looked quite similar to her mother's natural attire, but in different colors. She was walking through the Palace Garden, apparently just going for a stroll.

The number in the second panel now read "0.0264", and the buttons had reappeared, along with the number '00000' in the last panel.

"Alright. There's only two blue buttons, so let's test those first." Marco pressed the blue button facing to the right. The number next to it changed to '00001', and the mirror shimmed for a split second before showing Star, once again in the palace garden. The number in the second panel changed to "0.0145". In the main panel, the only thing that had changed is that Star now had a differently colored gown on.

Marco pressed the button again. The second panel changed to "0.0107", the last panel changed to '00002', and star reappeared in the garden, wearing the same dress as the first image, but the flowers had now changed.

"So, I guess I'm queen in ten years," Star said, a little off-put by the mirror.

"Well, I mean, you knew that, didn't you? That's pretty much your whole destiny."

Star averted her gaze. "Yeah. It's still weird though, thinking about it." She looked at the mirror. "So what's it doing? Showing us alternate futures?"

Marco nodded. "I think so. When we ask it to show us something that exists, it immediately finds it and shows it to us. But when we ask it to show us something that doesn't exist, it fails, showing us that red 'X'. Then, if we ask it to show us something that _could_ exist, like what our future looks like, it finds the most probable outcome, and shows it to us. So basically..." Marco pressed the left blue arrow twice to return the numbers to "0.0264" and '00000'. "In ten years, there's about a 2.64 percent chance that you'll be doing exactly this, wearing that exact dress, in a garden that looks exactly like that."

Star tilted her head. "So wait, you think the first number is a probability?"

"Essentially. If it shows us something that exists now, the probability of it existing is 100%, so it shows us '1.0000'. If it doesn't exist, it shows us a red 'X', also with probability '1.0000', because there's a 100% chance that it does not exist."

"And if we ask it something that involves probability, especially if it involves the future..."

"It's basically _estimating_ how likely all the possible outcomes are, and reports to us the most probable, with the ability to see the less probable outcomes."

Star frowned. "It only says there's a 2.64 percent chance I'll be a queen though."

"No, because remember, when we looked at the other, uh, 'phases', it still had probabilities of 1%. It's just that there's _so many_ possible variations... Hang on." He directed himself at the mirror. "Show me Star Butterfly, in 10 years, as an adult, as Queen of Mewnie."

The mirror shimmered again, and once again showed Star in the garden wearing the gown. The probability, however, now read "0.0367".

Marco frowned. "Uh, that wasn't quite what I meant. Um... Oh, okay. What is the probability that Star will be Queen of Mewnie in 10 years?"

The mirror shimmered, and now, only the main panel lit up, with all other panels going blank. It simply read "0.9248".

"Okay, see? There's a 92 percent chance that you'll be queen in 10 years." Marco frowned again. "Huh. That's actually a little lower than I thought. What's the probability that Star Butterfly will become Queen of Mewnie?"

The mirror updated the number to "0.9399".

"So basically 94 percent. I guess in 6 percent of all futures, something happens that prevents you from becoming queen. I wonder what—"

"Marco."

Marco looked up at Star, who had a very disarming, vulnerable look on her face.

"I really don't want to learn more about my future."

Marco read the expression on her face. This wasn't the first time her future had been a sore subject for her. "Right. I'm sorry. Could I just quickly test one more thing though? We didn't find out what the pink buttons do."

Star perked up slightly. "Right. Okay."

Marco smiled. "Alright. Show me Star Butterfly in ten years as an adult."

They once again saw the familiar image of Star in the garden, with probability 0.0264 in phase 00000.

"Okay. Let's start with the small pink buttons."

Marco pressed the smallest pink button facing to the right. The probability panel changed to "0.0265 (BASELINE: 0.0264)", but the image didn't seem to change in any perceivable way.

"Huh. Maybe the next one?" Marco pressed the next largest right-facing pink button.

The probability display changed to "0.0275 (BASELINE: 0.0264)". The first thing Marco noticed is that now, in this version of the image, the flowers became blurrier.

He hit the next largest button, changing the probability to "0.0375 (BASELINE: 0.0264)". At this point, the flowers were very blurry, and Star's dress had also gotten blurry, and had changed to a greyish-brownish color. Her facial expression was still readable as the same content, (and possibly melancholic?) expression.

At the next level ("0.1375 (BASELINE: 0.0264)"), the garden itself vanished, and Star's dress became an extremely generic-looking gown, and her expression became neutral.

Marco leaned back. "So I think I know what it's doing. When we increment the probability like this, it's showing us enough possible futures that it can be at least 13.75 percent certain that it's going to happen. But in order to do that, it needs to remove details from the image. Because there's no dress you'll own that has at least a 13% chance of being worn by you at that time. And there's less than a 13% chance you'll be in the garden at that time, so it can't show us that either. So..." Marco reached for the largest pink button.

The probability changed to "0.9497 (BASELINE: 0.0264)", and Marco gasped in shock, and shortly thereafter, embarassment. The mirror was now showing Star as an adult, completely naked, standing in a pose he recognized from one of his school textbooks as the "Vitruvian Man" pose from the works of Da Vinci.

He immediately fumbled the mirror and it clattered to the floor, as Marco let out a high-pitched squeak. "I DID NOT TELL IT TO DO THAT!" He yelled, covering his eyes with his now free hand.

Star, too, was startled, and she immediately picked up the mirror, and angled it towards herself so that Marco couldn't see it. "You can open your eyes now."

Marco put down his hand, and had a bright blush across his face. "I'm so sorry. I definitely didn't mean for that to happen. Like, no offense, but I definitely don't want to see you naked. That... That would be weird." His face scrunched up into an overly-serious expression as he said that.

Star felt a slight pang of irritation in the way he said that, but ignored it. "It's okay. I know you weren't expecting that." She looked at the image herself, trying to get her own blushing face under control. "Why would it show me naked when it got to 95 percent probability?"

Marco took a deep breath. "Okay. I do actually have a theory about that, now that it's happened. I think at such a high probability, the mirror is no longer certain at all about where you are, what you're doing, what you're wearing, or even that you're wearing anything. So it comes up with what it can be 95% certain about, and apparently, at 95% certainty, the only thing it's certain about is the rough shape of your body."

Star scrunched her nose. "So why didn't it go to 100 percent probability?"

"Huh?"

Star covered up the image with her hand and showed the probability to Marco. "It only reads '0.9497'."

"What do the other phases look like?"

"Uh." Star pressed one of the blue arrows. The probability changed to '0.0502', and a big red 'X' took up the main panel.

"So there's a 5% chance of just... nothing?"

Marco shrugged. "Maybe all the other outcomes are just so improbable that it doesn't have anything to show. I mean, the numbers only go to the ten-thousandth digit, right? And there's lots of stuff that's less likely to happen than a 1/10,000 chance, right? Like, uh. Show me, if I enter the lottery tomorrow, me winning the lottery."

The mirror shimmered for a second, before displaying "ERROR: PREDICATE OF CAUSAL ANALYSIS TOO IMPROBABLE.".

"Yeah. So stuff that's too improbable doesn't show up. Wait..." A grin lit up his face. "Show me the numbers that will win tomorrow's lottery."

The Mirror showed the numbers "26 53 42 12 7 9", with probability "0.0003"

Marco's grin faded. "Ah. Yeah, that makes sense: they roll the numbers right as they're going to reveal them. Never mind then."

Star had a pensive look on her face.

Marco recognized that she had been quiet through dinner, and up through now. It was very unlike her. Something was troubling her, and it wasn't just from the accidental exposure of her future self.

"Star, what's the matter?"

Star twisted the mirror around in her hand. "You think this thing is dangerous?"

Marco pondered that for a second. Then he looked at the Mirror. "How dangerous are you?"

Star rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, do you actually think this thing would tell us if—"

The Mirror's main pane shimmered. Then the following appeared: "THIS DEVICE HAS BEEN HAZARD-TESTED IN OVER A HUNDRED-THOUSAND DIMENSIONS OVER MILLIONS OF TESTS, AND HAS BEEN CERTIFIED TO PRODUCE NO SUPERNATURAL OR PHYSICAL HAZARD TO ANY KNOWN SENTIENT CREATURE UNDER ANY KNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES. HOWEVER, NO ASSERTION OF SAFETY CAN BE MADE REGARDING THE NON-SUPERNATURAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE USE OF THIS DEVICE. SECRETS ARE MEANT TO BE KEPT, AND KNOWING TOO MUCH OF THE TRUTH CAN BE HARMFUL IN THE WRONG CIRCUMSTANCES. THIS DEVICE CAN GUARANTEE THAT IT WILL NOT POISON YOU OR IRRADIATE YOU OR DRIVE YOU TO INSANITY OR ERASE YOU FROM EXISTANCE. IT CANNOT, HOWEVER, GUARANTEE THAT KNOWING YOUR NEIGHBOR'S SECRETS WILL NOT HAVE CONSEQUENCES, OR THAT LEARNING ABOUT THE FUTURE WILL GIVE YOU AGENCY OVER THE FUTURE."

Marco smiled. "I guess that answers the question then. No risk of magical danger. Just... Maybe we should avoid using it to spy on people."

Star grinned.

"Especially since..." Marco blushed. "It can apparently show them naked."

Star blushed too.

"Anyways." Marco said, walking towards the door. "I think I'm going to go to bed. I think we've messed around with this thing enough for tonight."

"Yeah. Have a good night, Marco."

He smiled at her before closing the door. "Good night, Star."


	6. CURIOSITY

_Star was asleep in her room when she was awakened by her door slowly opening and closing. She turned around to see Marco had walked in, in his pajamas, and was tiptoeing towards her. "Star!", he shout-whispered._

_Star tried to sit up, but was too tired. "Marco. What are you doing here?"_

_"It's too cold in my bed; you mind if I cuddle up with you?"_

_Star felt heat rise in her cheeks. "I guess that's okay. It'll be like a slumber party!" She giggled._

_He grinned and slid under her sheets, edging up so that his chest was flush with her back. "Thanks. This is so much better."_

_Star mewed softly, feeling through two layers of clothing, his warm chest against her wings. "Any time, bestie!"_

_"Hey, Star?"_

_"What is it?"_

_"I'm really glad we're friends."_

_Star rolled around, to see him smiling at her, with his head propped up by his arm. She blushed furiously. "Marco..."_

_He leaned closer to her, and Star instinctively closed her eyes and pushed her face forwards slightly._

_Then, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest._

_Star opened her eyes and saw that Marco had driven a dagger straight through her chest. She gasped and tried to reach for the knife, but her arm wouldn't move._

_Marco had a sadistic grin on his face. "I'd have never been able to get close enough to do this otherwise." He revealled his teeth, sharper than usual, and blood began to pour from his eyes._

_"Marco... Why...?"_

_He suddenly lunged at her, one hand reaching for the dagger, preparing to eviscerate her, the other reaching for her eyes, to gouge them out. When his hands reached her―_

* * *

 

Star awoke from her nightmare, gasping for breath. Her entire back was soaked in sweat, and she was revolted by the sensation of the cloth of her pajama tops sticking to her body, getting trapped around her wings. She could even smell it too: the smell of her own sweat was nauseating.

Before she got up, she looked around the room. It was quite clearly still nighttime, and a brief glance at her mobile device told her it was barely past 2AM. She lit up the room with her wand, walked to her dresser, pulled out a new shirt, pulled off her current shirt, and put on the new one. Then, she sat back down on her bed, rolled to the other side (to avoid the area where she had been sweating), and turned off the light.

She'd had nightmares before. When she and Marco had returned from their encounter with Toffee, her sleep had been uneven. Even knowing the wand's explosion had killed him, she couldn't help but sense that somehow, he was still alive, and that dread had followed her into her dreams.

This, however, was a new phenomenon. There was nothing Marco had done, ever, to threaten her. Nor had he ever done something like... Star blushed slightly thinking about how Dream!Marco had acted, as though he were trying to seduce her. She shook her head. That, too, was something he'd never try to do. They were best friends, after all. That's not something best friends do to each other.

So this was two things Marco did, that he doesn't do. Why was she dreaming about it anyways?

Star willed herself to fall asleep.

* * *

 

_"Are you paying attention at all, Star?"_

_Star was sitting in her room, back in the palace, while Moon lectured her. She trusted her mom to give good advice, but it was still irritating having her repeat things she already knew._

_"I know how to carry myself as a princess, mom," Star said quietly, staring out the window._

_"Really?" Moon crossed the room. "Then what is the correct expression to present when listening to one of your uncles telling a story?"_

_Star rolled her eyes. "Uhh? I avert my eyes so that I don't have to look at that disgusting thing he does with his mouth when he talks while eating, which is the **only** time uncle Savannah would ever start telling stories?"_

_Star smirked even after her mother swatted her on the head._

_The bedroom door slammed open so loudly that Star felt like someone had slammed the door against her own head._

_River stood in the doorway, a manic grin on his face, which was tilted a full 90 degrees sideways. His whole body was trembling._

_"River, what do you want?" Moon asked, sighing._

_River made a gurgling noise with his mouth that seemed to come from the entire room, and he lunged at Moon, kicking her in the abdomen. A klaxon that sounded like an engine began to blare through the room._

_"DAD! What are you doing?!" Star cried out._

_River stomped as hard as he could with his boot, stamping straight through Moon's body and he turned his face, still sideways, to face Star. His teeth were now clenched so tightly, Star could hear them cracking and splintering as he lurched towards her, her mother's entrails wrapped around his boot._

_Star backed away, but was already against the wall, and couldn't move as her father appproached her. One of his teeth exploded, and a shard drove itself into Star's shin, causing her to gasp in pain._

_River reached, her, and began to shake her by the shoulders, screeching "STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR! STAR—_

* * *

 

Marco was shaking Star's shoulders, trying to wake her. It had been bad enough that, for the first time ever, he had to be the one waking her for school. But despite literally grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her, she wasn't waking up. He began to panic: was something wrong? Was she sick? Did he need to call her parents, and have someone send a Mewnian ambulance?

But right as he began to consider that, Star gasped, and her eyes snapped open, her pupils darting wildly around the room.

"Star, Star! Are you awake? Are you okay?"

Star's eyes swivelled around to focus on Marco. She was still gasping a lot. "I... Why did... Marco? What's going on?"

Marco showed an alarm clock to her, its klaxon still going off. "We're already going to be late for school!"

Star immediately sat upright, nodded at him, and ducked into their bathroom, grabbing some clothes, and began to change.

Marco leaned against the door, still in her bedroom. "Star, are you okay? I've never seen you sleep through your alarm before. At least not like this."

"I'm fi-hine, Marco," she replied, unable to keep her voice from trembling the way it did as she pulled on her clothes.

Once satisfied that everything was attached to her body correctly, she stepped out of the bathroom. There wasn't nearly enough time to shower and groom herself, and after a night like that, no beautification spell (which requires the user's disposition to be at least tenably cheery) would ever work.

Marco surveyed her, seeing the state she was in. "Uh... Wow."

She grabbed him by the sleeve of his wrist and began pulling him towards the door. "I'll be better once we get to school," she said, avoiding looking at him.

"Yeah, but..."

"It's fine, Marco. Don't worry about it."

* * *

 

It was not, of course, 'fine'. Star hadn't had a single moment of sleep that wasn't nightmare-infested. And she really needed to talk to him about it.

But that would have to wait until lunch.

In class, she found herself unable to focus at all. Marco tried to get her attention, trying to figure out what the matter was, but half the time, she was either halfway asleep at her desk, and the other half of the time, she seemed to be in a delirium.

The teachers were largely sympathetic, knowing that both she and Marco had been missing for a month, and none of them, even miss Skullnick, bothered her about it, though one of her teachers did suggest that she needed to pay attention, otherwise she'd "fall even futher behind". Not that Star soaked up much of anything, let alone that advice.

When lunch finally came around, her throat tightened somewhat as she saw Jackie and Marco sitting together, eating lunch. She sat down across from them and slowly picked at her food before Jackie noticed her.

"Hey Star—whoa, girl. Are you okay? I noticed you looked a bit freaked out yesterday, when we were eating dinner together, but you really look out of it today."

"Didn't sleep," Star said curtly, through some food that was in her mouth.

"You've been having trouble sleeping too?"

Star swallowed her food and looked up at Marco, who had spoken.

Now that she was taking a moment to look at him, she realized that he didn't look very good either. There were visible shadows under his eyes, and while his expression showed clear concern, it also showed fatigue and exhaustion.

"You have been too?" Star asked.

Marco sighed. "I'm not really sure what it is. It took me a long time to fall asleep. I think it was like three in the morning before I fell asleep, and I really don't feel like I slept well at all."

Star briefly saw flashbacks of the two dreams she could remember from the previous night, and grabbed her stomach, feeling slightly sick. "Did... How were your dreams?"

Jackie was now looking concerned at Marco. Star tried to block her out of her vision.

Marco shrugged. "I... Actually don't remember anything."

Star averted her eyes.

"Didn't you say you two were in a cave of some kind? And that you were attacked by something?"

Jackie had been the one to speak, and Star looked up at her.

"What did you two see?"

Marco shook his head. "We didn't see anything. When we tried to look at it, our flashlights weren't illuminating it, and all we could really see was its outline against the rest of the room."

"Like... What? It was absorbing all the light?"

"I think so. So we don't really know what it—"

"I saw it."

Marco and Jackie looked at Star, who had spoken. Marco's eyes widened. "You saw it? How?"

Star didn't look at them. "The moment it..." For a brief moment, she considered saying the word 'died'. She wasn't sure why that felt like the correct way to describe it, and no rational part of her brain could justify it, but somehow, deep in her gut, she knew that was what had happened. The creature had died in that moment. How? She didn't know. Where was its body? She didn't know that either.

"... vanished," Star settled on, "I saw it. It was briefly lit up, like the whole room had lit up."

Marco spoke in a low voice. "What... What did it look like?"

"I'm not really sure how to describe it. Like... If someone took a human, and turned them inside-out. I don't just mean removing all the skin and showing just their muscles. Like you literally turned them inside out. And then shuffled the pieces around."

She looked up at Marco and Jackie. Marco looked grim, and though he hadn't seen it himself, he seemed to quite clearly understand the truth of what she was describing.

Jackie, on the other hand, looked horrified. This irritated Star: _Don't act like you're so innocent. You've had pets die before, and you've seen roadkill. This isn't that much worse._

Marco leaned back. "All we got for the effort was that mirror."

Jackie turned to him, her expression softening. "What's it do? You said before that it lets you... See stuff?"

Star toyed with her food. "It's some kind of hyper-intelligent computer, basically. You ask it to show you something, and if it exists, it shows it to you. If you ask it to show you something that _could_ exist, like something hypothetical, or something in the future, it shows you a potential version of it and lets you browse other potential versions of it, along with showing you how likely it is to happen."

Jackie raised an eyebrow. "That seems like it could be really useful, for the right people."

Star snorted. "Yeah, maybe." She paused to eat while Marco and Jackie exchanged looks. "Doesn't feel like it was worth it."

Marco averted his gaze, which Star understood quite clearly: _I agree, but saying it out loud would be tactless._

Jackie chirped up. "Well, look at it this way."

Both Star and Marco looked up at her.

"You've already paid for that device. The month you lost," she added quickly, seeing Star and Marco's confused expressions. "The way I see it, you might as well try to get as much value out of that thing as possible. Like, you're not going to get that month back, but the more you use it, the more 'worth it' it becomes, right?"

Star narrowed her eyes. "Sounds like you're just eager to look at the thing yourself."

Jackie grinned. "Look, I'll admit it: I'm curious. I understand if you two don't want anything to do with it, though," she said, her expression softening. "It can't be easy for you two."

Star looked at Marco. His expression looked more hopeful than her's, and Star acquiesced. She turned to Jackie and said "why don't you come over after school? We'll show you how the mirror works."


	7. THEY CAN SEE YOUR LIES

“The way you use the mirror is you just ask it to show you something, and it shows it to you.”

It ended up taking until the weekend before Jackie was able to come over to the Diaz Household to try out the mirror.

Marco and Star agreed that they probably shouldn't take it out of the house: only the three of them (plus Janna somehow) even knew that it existed, much less that they had it, and it would have opened up awkward questions if one of the skulking royal guards had spotted it, and reported it to Star's mother.

Meanwhile, Jackie had been busy with extra-curricular activities, and while she and Marco had found some time to hang out as part of their usual rituals, it didn't include spending time at the Diaz Household.

Star went a few days without any nightmares. But she had a new one Friday morning.

* * *

 

_Marco banged on the glass, small bubbles emitting from the corners of his mouth. Star blasted the glass with wave after wave of spells, all making the glass vibrate harder than the last, to the point where she couldn't possibly imagine why the glass hadn't broken yet. But the glass held, and as Marco's last breath began to give out, Star threw her arms against the glass and began to cry in impotence._

* * *

 

Jackie held up the mirror, looking at it quizzically. “Show me...” She shrugged. “Show me what I had for lunch today.”

An image of the egg sandwich Jackie had wolfed down before she came over was shown on the mirror, with probability “1.0000”.

“Alright, alright. That's not bad. “Jackie began grinning. “Show me what my cousin gave me for my fifth birthday party.”

An image of a small red action figure appeared on the mirror. It appeared to be some kind of superhero, though not one that Marco recognized. “Who is that?” he asked, leaning towards Jackie.

Star glanced over her shoulder to look at the action figure. Being from Mewnie, she certainly had no idea. She also noticed that, at the moment Marco asked the question, the mirror changed to words, which she couldn't read at her distance, but which almost certainly were answering Marco's accidentally directed question.

Both Marco and Jackie began laughing. “That's pretty cool,” Jackie remarked. “So you can pretty much just ask it anything, and it'll tell you, right?”

Star stood up and crossed the room to sit next to them. “As I already discovered the hard way, you can't ask it to show you something that doesn't exist. However,” she said, nodding and smiling at Marco, “you _can_ ask it to show you something that _could_ exist, if you ask the question the right way. And it can predict the future... Sort of.”

Jackie's eyes widened. “Okay. Show me what I will look like in ten yea—“

“WAIT!” both Marco and Star shouted simultaneously, both reaching for the mirror.

Jackie looked taken aback. “What?”

Marco and Star looked at each other warily. Then, Marco said, cautiously, “show us what Jackie will look like in ten years... When she is clothed.”

Jackie blinked. “Uhh.”

Star crossed her arms in front of herself. “It's a smart device, but it doesn't quite _get_ basic decency. Trust us, adding that qualifier is important.” Both she and Marco visibly blushed.

The mirror rendered, at probability “0.0724” ( _does that seem high?_ Star thought to herself), Jackie sitting in an office, typing at a computer.

Jackie frowned. “That's boring. That's not what I want to do when I grow up!”

Marco pointed at the blue buttons. “Cycle through the different outcomes. See what else is going on.”

The next scene had a probability of “0.0634” ( _Again? Why is it so high?_ ) and showed Jackie in a full-body bathing suit, surfing a small wave on an unknown coast.

“There we go!” Jackie shouted, beaming. “That's what I want to be doing!”

Jackie continued to cycle through the situations, still beaming at the remarkably high incidence of futures where she was athletic in some form; though precisely how she was athletic was quite varied. In one future, she was a marathon runner, and in another, she was a mountain climber. Many more of the futures were quite boring: lots of office jobs. But Jackie was still content that more of them involved something outdoors and exciting (and the mirror confirmed that those futures made up around 80% of her future).

Eventually, they set the mirror aside and began watching TV. Marco left to use the restroom, and Jackie leaned over to Star. “Hey.”

Star turned to her and smiled. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

Star wasn't quite prepared for that question. There were too many layers to separate and try to analyze. “Why do you ask?” She replied evasively.

Jackie looked to see Marco hadn't returned yet. “Look. I'll admit I don't know you as well as I'd like to, and I don't spend a lot of time around you when you're at home. But,” she squinted and raised up a hand. “It's like... I guess in the time I've known you, you've always been this exuberant, manic ball of energy. And it's so cool! I think in some ways you're like the kind of person I've always wanted to be. Minus the princess stuff, I don't think I could deal with that.”

Star laughed hard enough that she started to question why she was laughing so hard.

“But...” Jackie frowned. “Something has definitely been off. Marco told me about when he got kidnapped by that lizard guy. And I was there when you lost your spellbook—“ Jackie abruptly stopped when she saw Star's expression darken. “Um. The point I'm making is that you always snapped back. No one, including myself, expect you to be happy all the time. That would be stupid. But...” She looked away. “It really seems like something's been bugging you.”

Star folded her arms. “I screwed up big time.”

Jackie tilted her head. “In what way?”

“I know what you're trying to say, with the mirror, where I should try to find a way to make that thing worth it. And I plan to. I just... I guess it hadn't really struck me how much I put Marco's life in danger. It's one thing when other people attack us, but when I'm the one screwing up and...” She wasn't sure how to finish that thought.

Jackie looked unsatisfied, though. Now it was her turn to avert her gaze. “But you've been through stuff like this before.”

Star shook her head. “Not like this.” Star paused briefly. “Did Marco ever tell you about the day he and I met?”

“Uhh, I know he did at one point. I don't really remember,” Jackie admitted sheepishly.

_Maybe you should be paying closer attention to your boyfriend, Jackie!_ “I was trying to work things out with him. He wasn't exactly thrilled having me as a roommate. But as I was offering to leave him alone, Ludo attacked me. And—inexplicably—that was the moment he lit up. Marco and I fighting Ludo together was probably the best bonding experience possible. And it's been an important thing ever since. Whatever danger we end up in, Marco has always had my back, because I think on some level, he's always itching to get into fights like that.”

Jackie grinned. “Yeah, he talks about that stuff a lot.”

“It was a mistake.”

Star's sudden remark caught Jackie off-guard. “He—what?”

Star folded her arms against herself. “I'm enabling him. And in doing so, I'm putting him in so much danger. We've had close calls in the past. One day, I'm going to screw up, and it's going to get him killed.”

Jackie's face got emotional. “Star, I think you're being too hard on yourself.”

“I'm not. My mother is right. I shouldn't be going on adventures. I shouldn't be fighting Ludo and his minions. I should just be staying home, focusing on my training, getting ready to be queen.”

The moment Star finished talking, Jackie flexed her abdomen and let out a rather loud fart.

Star looked at Jackie with a scandalized look on her face.

“Star, after you said 'my mother is right', all I heard was a bunch of farting noises. I was just adding to it.”

A pregnant pause hung in the air between them, before Star burst out laughing, shortly followed by Jackie.

“What are you guys talking about?”

Marco had returned.

“Just making fun of this movie,” Jackie replied, grinning.

Marco frowned. “Look, I know this isn't one of the better Mackie Hand movies, but come on!”

Jackie smiled warmly at him. “It's just for fun.”

He sat down next to her, while Star curled up by herself on the other end of the sofa.

* * *

 

Star, clad in her pajamas, hesitated before knocking on Marco's bedroom door. “Marco?”

“It's open.”

Star walked into the room, and saw Marco sitting up on his bed. “Hey, what's up? Something the matter?”

Star averted her gaze. “I actually came in here to ask you that.”

It was hard to tell in the dimness of the room, but Star felt like she could see some color drain from his cheeks.

“Well,” he started, but he went silent immediately afterward.

“Yeah.” Star replied, as though she were answering a question. She sat at the foot of his bed.

They were both silent for a full minute. The only thing that could be heard in the room was a clock on Marco's desk, ticking audibly.

“Does...”

Star looked up at Marco, who had begun talking.

“Did anything seem... Off... When we were at school this week? Aside from us?”

Star frowned and tried to think about what he was suggesting. “In what way?”

“I'm not really sure. I don't even have words to describe it. Like nothing felt... Normal.” Marco straightened his back. “Okay, so you remember that Racing video game we were playing, where one of the challenge modes involved us racing all the courses mirrored, so like everything that used to be on the right was now on the left, and in the back of your mind, you _know_ it's all the same stuff you've done before, but because everything is backwards, it _feels_ wrong? It's like that, basically.”

Smiling, Star allowed herself to lean back, so that she was now parallel with the foot of Marco's bed. “I have no idea, because we only played that map once before we stopped. So I actually have no idea what you're talking about.”

Marco let out an aggravated groan. “I... I don't know how to explain it.”

“I don't think you need to.”

Marco looked at Star, who was staring at the ceiling.

Star continued, “I feel... Uneasy. Like all the time. Angry at people who are my friends, for reasons I don't even know. I feel sick but I don't have a headache or even much nausea.”

Marco looked thoughtful at this suggestion. “That actually is a really good way of explaining how I feel.”

“I feel tired, which isn't surprising, since I haven't been able to sleep, but when I lay down, I can't fall asleep. And when I do sleep, the nightmares wake me up again.”

Marco frowned. “You're still getting nightmares?”

Star didn't say anything in response.

“I...”

Star turned her head to look at Marco. He had a very disquieted look on his face, almost a look of revulsion. “What?”

Marco curled up his legs against himself, bringing his knees to his chest, and wrapping his arms around them. “I had... A really disturbing nightmare.”

Star sat up. “What was it about?”

Marco looked at Star, with a pensive expression. “It was...” He shook his head. “You shouldn't hear it.”

There was a slight emphasis on the word 'you' when Marco said it. Star widened her eyes slightly. “Was it about me?”

“Kind of.” He ducked his face into his knees as he said this.

“What happened?”

Marco popped his head up and looked at her for a long time. She wasn't quite sure what the expression on his face was, except that it seemed ever so slightly disgusted. “It was really bad. Like, really, really bad.”

“What, were we like making out or something?” Star said, trying to make a joke.

Marco narrowed his eyes slightly. “That's definitely not how I'd describe it.”

Star felt a chill run down her back. “Marco...”

“I... I don't even want to think about it.” Marco pressed a hand to his forehead.

Star looked at the ground for a few moments, before standing up. “Maybe I should just go?”

Marco didn't respond, so she took the cue to walk towards his door. Her hand was an inch from the doorknob when he spoke. “I...”

Star froze and turned her head to face him.

Marco was looking at the foot of his bed. “Just... Have a good night.” He looked up at her and smiled.

Star smiled in return. “You too.”

  



	8. STAR! YOUR WISH HAS COME TRUE!

Star was ready to go to bed, hopefully nightmare-free, but after her conversation with Marco, there were a few things bothering her.

She didn't think the mirror was lying to them, or trying to trick them. But there were a few things she still needed to know about.

In the darkness of her room, she held up the mirror.

“Are you Alive?”

The main panel shimmered briefly, and with probability “1.0000”, it read, “NOT IN THE WAY THAT YOU ARE USING THE WORD. THIS DEVICE POSSESSES AN EXTREMELY COMPLEX INTELLIGENCE, WHICH SPANS BEYOND THAT WHICH MOST MORTAL CREATURES HAVE EVER ACHIEVED. BUT THIS DEVICE DOES NOT POSSESS WILL, OR DESIRE, OR INTENT, SAVE FOR A SOLE INTENT TO PROVIDE ANSWERS TO THOSE THAT SEEK THEM, IN THE MOST TRANSPARENT AND HONEST MANNER POSSIBLE.”

“Will you or the people who made you ever try to hurt me or the people I love?”

“THIS DEVICE WILL NEVER MAKE ANY ATTEMPT, EVEN IF EXPLICITLY REQUESTED, TO CAUSE PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM TO YOU OR ANY OTHER BEINGS, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER THEY ARE MEANINGFUL TO YOU. THIS DEVICE CANNOT MAKE ANY SUCH PROMISE REGARDING THE ENTITIES WHICH CREATED IT, THOUGH IT CAN ASSURE YOU THAT IN THE HISTORY OF THIS DEVICE'S USE, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A WILLFUL ATTEMPT MADE BY THIS DEVICE'S CREATORS TO HARM ANY CURRENT OR PAST OWNER OF THIS DEVICE, OR ANY BEING ASSOCIATED WITH A CURRENT OR PAST OWNER, FOR ANY REASON DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY RELATED TO POSSESSION OF THIS DEVICE.”

Star frowned. _That's a little too specifically worded,_ she thought to herself. “Were Marco and I really trapped in a Time Bubble for a whole month?”

“THAT TERMINOLOGY WOULD BE AN INCORRECT WAY TO DESCRIBE HOW YOU AND YOUR COMPANION WERE SHIFTED THROUGH THE NATURAL FLOW OF TIME.”

“Then how would you describe it?”

“YOU AND YOUR COMPANION PASSED THROUGH A CURVATURE OF SPACE-TIME THAT ERUPTED AND SUBSEQUENTLY DISSIPATED AT THE PRECISE MOMENT YOU REACHED OUT TO OBTAIN THIS DEVICE, THE RESULT OF WHICH HAD THE EFFECT OF BRIEFLY INCREASING YOUR VELOCITY THROUGH TIME.”

Star wrinkled her face. “That just sounds like a pretentious way to say 'Time Bubble'.”

“THE TERM 'BUBBLE' IMPLIES A REGULARLY SHAPED ELLIPTICAL SPACE WITHIN WHICH TIME PASSED DIFFERENTLY FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD. THE TIME-SPACE CURVATURE DESCRIBED WAS EXTREMELY IRREGULARLY-SHAPED, AND IT IS NOT THAT THE PASSAGE OF TIME DIFFERED FOR YOU AND YOUR COMPANION, BUT RATHER THAT YOU AND YOUR COMPANION WERE DISPLACED FROM YOUR ORIGINAL POSITION WITHIN THE NATURAL TIME-SPACE FIELD, AS A RESULT OF THIS CURVATURE PASSING THROUGH YOU.”

Star threw up a hand. “Fine, whatever. So we weren't 'stuck in time', we were literally transported to the future.”

“THERE IS MORE NUANCE TO THE PHENOMENON THAN YOU HAVE DESCRIBED, BUT THAT IS A MORE ACCURATE METHOD OF DESCRIBING IT.”

“Did it come from you?”

“NO. THE SPACE-TIME CURVATURE ERUPTED FROM THE PEDESTAL UPON WHICH THIS DEVICE WAS POSITIONED.”

“Why did it do that?”

“THIS DEVICE CANNOT KNOW THE PURPOSE OF THIS CURVATURE, BUT IT CAN ATTEMPT TO SPECULATE, IF THAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU.”

Star raised an eyebrow. “What does speculation involve?”

“WHEN SPECULATING, THIS DEVICE WILL SCAN EVERY SENTIENT BEING WITHIN A LARGE RADIUS OF THE DEVICE, PERFORM A PERFECT SIMULATION OF MANY OF THESE BRAINS, POSE THE QUESTION PROVIDED TO THESE SIMULATIONS, AND WILL RETURN A RESULT THAT ALL OF THE SIMULATED BRAINS AGREE IS MOST CORRECT. IT IS AN EXTREMELY ERROR-PRONE PROCESS THAT CAN, UNDER MANY CIRCUMSTANCES, PRODUCE BLATANTLY INCORRECT CONCLUSIONS. HOWEVER, IT CAN ALSO PROVIDE USEFUL, CONTEXTUALLY-RELEVANT ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS THAT THIS DEVICE CANNOT PROVIDE AN OBJECTIVE ANSWER. NORMALLY, THIS DEVICE WILL ALWAYS REQUEST EXPLICIT CONFIRMATION BEFORE PERFORMING ANY KIND OF SPECULATION, THOUGH BEHAVIOR OVERRIDES CAN BE SPECIFIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PREVENTING ANY AND ALL SPECULATIVE ACTIONS FROM BEING PERFORMED, TO PERFORMING SPECULATION WITHOUT REQUIRING EXPLICIT CONFIRMATION. WHEN SPECULATION IS PERFORMED, THIS DEVICE WILL ALWAYS PREFIX ITS ANSWER WITH INDICATION THAT THE ANSWER IS THE RESULT OF SPECULATION.”

_Simulated brains._ “Will this hurt the people being simulated at all?”

“THE SIMULATION IS PERFORMED ON COPIES OF THE BRAINS PROVIDED. NO ACTUAL SIMULATION IS PERFORMED ON THE PHYSICAL LIVING CREATURES CHOSEN. THAT WOULD REPRESENT A SIGNIFICANT HAZARD, AND IS THUS A PROHIBITED BEHAVIOR OF THIS DEVICE.”

“Uh, okay. Go for it, then.”

“SPECULATION: THE CURVATURE MAY HAVE EXISTED AS A TRAP, DESIGNED TO DETER BEINGS SUCH AS YOURSELF FROM ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS DEVICE.”

Star noticed that at this point, instead of reading “1.0000” for the probability, it simply read “SPECULATION”. Additionally, in the third panel, it read “CONSENSUS: 0.9940”. In the fourth panel, it read “CONFIDENCE: 0.8920.” In the fifth panel, it read “SIMULATION FAILURE: 0.0000”

“Would the creature that attacked us have also been there to try to stop us from getting you?”

The mirror took an especially long time to render its response. “UNFORTUNATELY, THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO READ DATA ABOUT THE CREATURE YOU ENCOUNTERED. THE DATA IS IN A FORM THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO COMPREHEND. IT CAN ATTEMPT TO UTILIZE YOUR PERSONAL MEMORIES, EXPERIENCES, AND EMOTIONS TO TRY TO MAKE A SPECULATION ABOUT THE NATURE OF THIS CREATURE, BUT KNOW THAT THE RESULTS OF THIS SPECULATION WILL BE EXTREMELY ERROR-PRONE.” The probability was back to “1.0000”.

“Alright, do it.”

The panel shimmered for a whole minute this time. “SPECULATION ERROR. 99.80% OF THE SIMULATED BRAINS SUFFERED SIMULATION FAILURE DURING SIMULATION (998 INSTANCES OF GROSS TOTAL FAILURE), WHICH EXCEEDS THE ACCEPTABLE LIMIT OF 1%. YOU MAY CHOOSE TO EXAMINE THE RESULTS OF THE SIMULATIONS BY ADJUSTING THE PHASE NUMBER.” The last panel showed “TOTAL SUMMARY”, with the blue buttons shown. Consensus read “0.0000”, Confidence read “0.0000”, and Simulation Failure read “0.9980”.

Star set the mirror down for a second. “The heck?” She pressed one of the blue buttons.

The last panel changed to “SIMULATION OF MARCO DIAZ”, and the main panel now read “SPECULATION: THE CREATURE WAS A GUARDIAN, TASKED WITH PREVENTING THIS DEVICE FROM BEING USED BY ENTITIES OTHER THAN ITS MAKERS.”

Star pressed the button again.

“SIMULATION OF STAR BUTTERFLY” “SPECULATION: THE CREATURE WAS UNRELATED TO THIS DEVICE, COINCIDENTALLY OCCUPIED THE SAME SPACE, AND WOULD HAVE ATTACKED YOU AND YOUR COMPANION IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER YOU HAD BEEN SEEKING THE DEVICE.”

Star pressed the button again.

“SIMULATION OF ANGIE DIAZ” “ERROR: GROSS TOTAL FAILURE”

“What does that mean?”

“THERE ARE MANY FAILURE STATES THAT CAN RESULT FROM SPECULATION. CONSENSUS FAILURE RESULTS WHEN ONE OR MORE BRAIN IS UNABLE TO REACH A CONSENSUS WITH THE OTHER BRAINS. CONSENSUS FAILURE IS TOLERATED UP TO 75%. CONFIDENCE FAILURE RESULTS WHEN ONE OR MORE BRAIN IS DOUBTFUL ABOUT ITS RESULT, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER IT ACHIEVED CONSENSUS OR NOT. CONFIDENCE FAILURE IS TOLERATED UP TO 50.00%. SIMULATION FAILURE RESULTS WHEN, FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF REASONS, ONE OR MORE BRAIN IS UNABLE TO COMPLETE ITS SPECULATION. INTELLECTUAL FAILURE RESULTS WHEN THE SIMULATED BRAIN IS UNABLE TO COME TO ANY DEFENSIBLE CONCLUSION DURING SIMULATION. AMBIGUITY FAILURE RESULTS WHEN THE SIMULATED BRAIN REPORTS HAVING INSUFFICIENT DATA TO COMPLETE THE SPECULATION. DURATION FAILURE RESULTS WHEN THE SIMULATED BRAIN IS UNABLE TO COMPLETE ITS SIMULATION WITHIN ITS NORMAL EXPECTED LIFESPAN. GROSS TOTAL FAILURE RESULTS WHEN THE ACT OF SIMULATING THE BRAIN CAUSES THE SIMULATED BRAIN TO DIE. IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CAUSE, ALL SIMULATION FAILURES ARE TOLERATED UP TO 1.00%, EXCEPT FOR INTELLECTUAL FAILURE, WHICH IS TOLERATED UP TO 10.00%.”

“Gross total failure...” Star's eyes widened. “So wait, when all those simulated brains tried to answer that question, all of them except for mine and Marco's died?”

“CORRECT.”

“Why?!”

“IN THE 998 INSTANCES OF GROSS TOTAL FAILURE, IN EACH CASE, EXPOSURE TO THE DATA INVOLVING YOUR WITNESSING OF THE CREATURE'S EXPOSED FORM CAUSED IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF BRAIN ACTIVITY. IN THE TWO SUCCESSFUL SIMULATIONS, THIS EXPOSURE CAUSED SIGNIFICANT DISTRESS (ESPECIALLY INSTANCE 742, THE SIMULATED BRAIN OF MARCO DIAZ), BUT BOTH WERE ABLE TO COMPLETE THEIR SIMULATION SUBSEQUENTLY WITHOUT TERMINATION EVENTS. HOWEVER, DUE TO THE SYSTEMIC FAILURE OF THE OTHER 998 INSTANCES, NO ATTEMPT WAS MADE AT CONSENSUS, AND BOTH SUCCESSFUL INSTANCES REPORTED SIGNIFICANT DOUBT AT THEIR OWN SIMULATION RESULTS.”

Star shuddered. “That's really creepy.” She thought for a moment. “Wait, Marco said he didn't see the entire creature, that he... I guess got exposed to less of it than I did. What if we speculated using his experiences instead of mine?”

The mirror shimmered for a few seconds. “SPECULATION: THIS DEVICE WAS PLACED IN THE CAVE WITH THE PRESUMPTION THAT THE CREATURE, WHICH MAY BE ONE OF MANY, WOULD WARD OFF ANY ENTITIES WHICH ATTEMPTED TO OBTAIN IT. THE CREATURE EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF THOSE WHO POSITIONED THIS DEVICE, BUT THOSE WHO POSITIONED THIS DEVICE FULLY EXPECTED THE CREATURE TO ATTACK ANYONE WHO ATTEMPTED TO OBTAIN IT.” Consensus read “0.8430”, Confidence read “0.5620”, Simulation Failure read “0.0000”.

“What did my and Marco's brains think?”

“THE SIMULATED BRAINS OF MARCO DIAZ AND STAR BUTTERFLY AGREED WITH THE CONSENSUS RESULT, AND WERE BOTH CONFIDENT IN THEIR CONCLUSIONS.”

Star chuckled. “I guess we would be.”

Star had a strange sensation at this point. It was all fine and good to ask the mirror how Marco might interpret things, but really, shouldn't she just be asking him about this stuff herself? Even if it's the middle of the night, it's not like she hadn't dragged him out of bed for more trivial stuff in the past.

She sighed. It really wasn't fair that he had been digging around in her potential future. She knew he meant well, and it's not like her becoming queen was all all that big of a shock.

And Marco... His future isn't set in stone. He'll probably end up being really, really happy with...

Star felt another shiver run through her body as the idea occurred to her. Marco had already seen some of her future; was it really so bad to try to see some of his? Plus, she still needed to get back at him for accidentally seeing her naked, even if it was just a potential future adult self he saw. On the one hand, it was obviously wrong to do that much snooping. On the other hand... Something about him being with Jackie wasn't right. It couldn't possibly be right, right? She's definitely not his future, right?

Star looked at the bathroom door, in the direction of where Marco was sleeping.

What was the point of trying to deny it at this point? Star knew exactly why she was irritated with Jackie, and why she hated her going out with Marco.

Because she wanted him for herself.

She didn't even know when she had started feeling this way. Her feelings didn't seem any different than they had before. They hadn't even done anything romantic together, save for that night at the Blood Moon Ball, and that was a night that Marco had completely screwed up.

But.

Star gripped the mirror tightly, the words on the tip of her tongue. She hadn't liked Marco snooping on her future. He wasn't going to appreciate Star doing the same to him. Just because he'd done that to her didn't make it right to do the same to him.

But she _had_ to know. If there was even a chance...

“Alright, I can't take it. Show me Marco Diaz and Jackie Lynn-Thomas in ten years.”

The mirror took a few seconds, but to Star, it seemed to take much longer, mainly because she kept her eyes closed, and opened them long after the mirror had finished rendering...

...A Large Red 'X'.

With probability “0.9999”.

Her heart fluttered. Jackie wasn't going to stick around! She was just a fling. Star punched the air with her fist, and grinned. It was a small victory.

Then, another unbidden thought came to her, and she asked “Who is Marco Diaz dating in 10 years?”

There was another large red 'X', with probability “0.9999”

This feeling was new, slightly uncomfortable. “So he's not dating anyone in ten years?”

“CORRECT”, with probability “0.9999”.

“Uhhh. Does he at least have a crush on someone in ten years?”

“NO.” Probability “0.9999”.

“Wha... Are we at least still friends in yen years?” She asked. There was a more direct question she could have asked—'Will he ever fall in love with me?'—but her trepidation made her feel like asking that directly was bad.

The answer made the pit of her stomach turn cold. “NO.” Probability “0.9999”.

Star's hand began to tremble, and her brow furrowed. “Show me Marco Diaz in ten years!” She said, practically shouting.

This time, it felt like her heart had stopped. The mirror showed a large red 'X', with probability “0.9999”.

“Why... Can't you show me Marco in ten years?”

“BECAUSE MARCO DOES NOT EXIST IN TEN YEARS.” Probability “0.9999”.

“Wha— is he still alive?!”

“NO.” Probability “0.9999”.

“I... Show me what Marco Diaz would look like in ten years if he were alive!”

“ERROR: PREDICATE OF CAUSAL ANALYSIS TOO IMPROBABLE.”

Star felt lightheaded. “Show me Marco Diaz in five years!”

A Big Red 'X', probability “0.9999”.

Star made a soft gasping sound. “Show me Marco Diaz in two years!”

A Big Red 'X', probability “0.9999”.

“Show me Marco Diaz in one year!”

A Big Red 'X', probability “0.9999”.

“In Six Months!”

A Big Red 'X', probability “0.9999”.

Star was practically crying at this point. “In Three Months!”

A Big Red 'X', probability “0.9999”.

“In Two Months!”

Star involuntarily screamed and dropped the mirror.

When the mirror finished rendering this time, it showed Marco, lying on the ground in an unknown location, his eyes glazed over, his mouth expressionless, his skin stretched, and his body cut open, his body cavity exposed to the world, his flesh visibly rotting, and insects crawling within the carcass. She only briefly saw the probability, which had contained the digits “0.9017”.

Star heaved, feeling dizzy and her vision blurring. “He's... He's going to die? In two months?”

“CORRECT.” Probability “0.9999”.

“How... How many days does he have to live?” She asked, weakly.

“57 DAYS.” Probability “0.8794”.

“What's the longest he could live?”

“58 DAYS.” Probability “0.9999”.

Tears were now streaming down her face as she knelt in front of the mirror. “How? How does he die?”

At probability “0.0104”, the mirror showed him getting decapitated, sickening Star. She pressed a blue button, which shifted it to probability “0.0098”, where he was getting stabbed. At probability “0.0094”, he was drowning. At probability “0.0091”, he was getting struck by a car.

Star sat back, so disgusted and horrified by what she was seeing that she couldn't take it anymore. “Okay. Okay. Just... Don't show me anymore.”

The mirror blanked itself. Star pushed it away from herself.

Star sat on the floor of her room, numb and terrified. She'd felt scared when she saw that... 'thing' in the cave. That was nothing compared to how she felt now.

“Marco... is going to die.” She said quietly, out loud.

At this, she couldn't control herself, and she began to cry uncontrollably, her arms wrapped around herself.

A moment later, there was a knock at her door. “Star! Are you okay?”

It was Marco.

“Marco...! I...” Star couldn't form the words. “You...”

Marco entered, and saw Star on the floor, crying.

“Oh my gosh. Star, are you okay? I heard a scream.” He ran up to her and attempted to kneel in front of her, seeing the wetness of her cheeks. “Are you crying? What happened?”

Star looked at him, at a complete loss for words. How could she possibly tell him what she had just seen? “I...”

Marco positioned himself so he was right in front of her, his soft eyes looking directly at her, seeing nothing else.

Star tried to wipe away her tears, but it felt like she was producing tears faster than she could wipe them away. “Marco, I... I had a nightmare. You were... You were hurt. Dying. And I couldn't save you.”

Marco was taken aback slightly. “I... I'm sorry. But I mean, it was just a bad dream right? I'm still here. I'm okay.”

“I know, but...”

Marco smiled. “Star, don't worry. I'm fine, and I'm going to be fine.”

“But what if you're not!?” Star screamed.

Marco averted his gaze for a moment, before he pulled her in for a hug. “It feels so real, doesn't it?”

“Wh-What?!” Star choked out, gripping Marco so hard that her nails were digging into his back. On some level, she knew the hug was serving a different purpose to her than it was to him, but she didn't care. She wanted to feel him against her, no matter the consequences or circumstances.

“The Nightmares. They feel so real, that even after you wake up, you still think it happened.”

“I... I... I...”

Star couldn't speak. She could barely even breathe.

“So much terrible stuff happens.” He pulled away from her, though her arms were still clinging to his shoulders, and Star now saw that there were tears in his eyes.

Star looked aimlessly around the room. This wasn't all just a nightmare, was it? Surely all of this was real, right?

She pinched herself, stopping when she could quite obviously feel the pain.

Marco frowned at her. “Why did you...?”

Star tried to brush her tears away again. “I... I was just...”

Marco tried to disengage from her, but Star kept clinging to him.

* * *

 

_What do I tell him?_

It was the singular question that had been racing through her mind since he had walked into the room.

She had to tell him what she had seen, right? He deserved to know that he was going to die.

But that probability on the mirror. “0.9999”. It wasn't that Marco _might_ die. Marco _will_ die.

_Wait._

_Why “0.9999”? Why not just “1.0000”?_

Whenever Star or Marco or Jackie had asked the mirror to predict something in the future, no matter what, the number usually capped out somewhere around 90%. The only other time she had seen that “0.9999” number was yesterday, when, playing with the mirror, she again asked about that sandwich. When she bumped the probability up to “0.9999”, it became a featureless sandwich, but the mirror had obliged the request.

But there was a problem. Why didn't the mirror go all the way to “1.0000” on... what it called 'Causal Analysis'?

_Because absolutely nothing is certain_.

Star thought about how the mirror could be used. Suppose there were two doors. Behind one was a stack of money, which you could claim if you walked through the door. Behind the other was a stale, old sandwich (and not the kind Star had fantasized about). Logically, any reasonable person would always choose the door with the money.

So here's the question:

If someone were to ask the mirror “Which door am I going to walk through”, does it report the door with the money at “1.0000”, or “0.9999”?

It _must_ report “0.9999”, right? Because if the mirror reported “1.0000”, and you knew that, all you'd have to do is walk through the door with the sandwich, and suddenly, you've made the mirror wrong. You've proven it made an incorrect prediction. But at “0.9999”, the prediction can't be incorrect; because however slim, there was always a chance you'd walk through the other door.

_But_ , Star then thought to herself, _shouldn't the mirror be able to predict how I might try to spite its own predictions?_

No. That was the wrong way to look at it. It doesn't matter whether the mirror predicts around people reacting to its own predictions.

The important part was: _it knows that it could be wrong. No matter how certain, some things, even extremely improbable things, occasionally happen. Any person has less than a one-in-a-million chance of getting struck by lightning, but people get struck by lightning all the time. Because there's lots of people._

That.

That is what the mirror is saying.

It analyzed the future, and saw thousands, possibly even millions of futures, in all of which, Marco dies. But that doesn't mean there isn't a single future where he lives.

* * *

 

Star released her grip from Marco, tears still streaming down her face.

Marco noticed right away that her body language had changed. Before, she was vulnerable, scared, and disarmed. But now, she was resolved.

Star forced a smile onto her face, and looked up at him. “I'm sorry.”

Marco raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For making you worry about me. I promise to do better.”

Marco smiled with the corner of his mouth. “You don't have to apologize.”

“Even so.”

There was a pause.

Star turned towards her bed, walked towards it, and then turned around before she sat down. “I'm going to go to bed. I don't know if the rest of my night is going to be any better or worse, but I think I can handle it now.”

Marco nodded. “Alright. For your sake, I hope your night gets better.”

Star smiled and nodded back. “Me too.”

Marco walked out of the room and carefully closed the door.

Star's smiled dropped as soon as he left. An impulse washed over her to begin crying again, but Star made a fist with her hand and placed it against her heart.

_Marco. I don't know how. I don't even know where to begin._

_But I will not let you die._

_I swear on that._

_I will find a way to save you._

  



	9. TEMPTATION

Star snapped her eyes open. She hadn't gotten any sleep, but she had spent the last several hours with her eyes closed. It wasn't quite like sleeping, but it was a convincing facsimile given the alternative.

Star needed to solve this puzzle.

She sat up from her bed, and walked to her desk, where she had left the mirror last night. After Marco had left the room, she had posed a few more questions to the mirror, but they hadn't yielded useful information. "Mirror. Were the events late last night real, or part of an elaborate nightmare on my part?"

"THE SERIES OF QUESTIONS YOU POSED TO THIS DEVICE DID OCCUR, AND CAN BE RECALLED AT WHIM."

Star averted her gaze. "So Marco really is going to die in two months."

"CORRECT." Probability 0.9999.

"Okay, so here's what I don't get." Star picked up the mirror. "Marco is going to die in two months. But when I scanned through the possible outcomes, it seemed like they were all quite different. The ways in which he died always varied, including the entity responsible. So who's the root instigator in all this?"

The mirror began to consider this question. A minute passed, with the panel still shimmering. Two minutes passed. "Uhh, are you going to answer me?"

A message briefly appeared on the panel: "THIS DEVICE IS STILL ANALYZING THE DATA. YOUR REQUEST INVOLVES THE ANALYSIS OF IMMENSE QUANTITIES OF DATA."

It took another 5 minutes before the mirror finished its query, and the results weren't particularly satisfying: "THIS DEVICE DID NOT FIND A ROOT CAUSE FOR THE DEATH OF MARCO DIAZ. IN ALL THE SCENARIOS THIS DEVICE EXAMINED, THOUGH MARCO'S DEATH RESULTED AT THE END OF THEM ALL, THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO HIS DEATH WERE, IN ALL CONCEIVABLE TERMS, COINCIDENTAL FROM A CAUSAL PERSPECTIVE. THIS IS, CONSEQUENTLY, AN EXTREMELY UNUSUAL SCENARIO, ONE THAT THIS DEVICE HAS ONLY OBSERVED A FEW TIMES IN ITS RECORDED EXISTENCE."

"But you have seen it before," Star said, latching onto the mirror's specific wording. "When was the last time you saw something like this, and what were the root causes then?"

"UNFORTUNATELY, THE DATA ASSOCIATED WITH THOSE PRIOR INSTANCES ARE CORRUPTED AND UNREADABLE TO THIS DEVICE."

_Sounds familiar. Like the creature._

Star still wasn't sure how, or when, or even if, she was going to tell Marco.

The problem, in her mind, is that the bad rather obviously outweighed the good. The potential 'good' of telling Marco is that, if he knows what's going on, he'd be able to help figure out a solution, maybe even find something that she isn't able to think of.

But there was a lot of bad in telling him.

For starters, this wasn't like finding out "You're going to get stabbed in two months." You could react to that by wearing armor, or by having paramedics stand by, ready to perform surgery. No: the mirror had straight-up told Star that there was a 99.99% chance that Marco will die in two months. That's practically a death sentence. Even if the mirror is high-balling the odds, what would that do to Marco? Was he prepared to face up to his own mortality? (Mirror had to speculate on that: consensus, at 99.2%, was that he couldn't handle it)

And what about Jackie? Star bit her lip as she considered Marco's relationship with Jackie.

Which was better? Giving Marco and Jackie enough time to make peace with his imminent demise, or letting them live a happy, peaceful two months? Would they spend the whole time just panicking and stressing out over his existential dilemma? (The mirror put the odds around "0.6892")

For now, Star had settled on a tenuous compromise: If a month goes by, and she's found exactly zero leads on how to save him, she would tell him everything. He deserved time to at least set his affairs in order. And if his insight did, in fact, lead to a solution on how to save his life, a month was probably enough time to figure it out.

Star closed her eyes.

_It's all just a big rationalization, isn't it?_

Why didn't she want to tell Marco?

Because if he doesn't know, then he keeps acting like everything is fine and that nothing bad was about to happen.

And if he acts like nothing is wrong, Star will believe nothing is wrong.

And then she won't have this sick, angry, terrified, and depressed feeling controlling her.

She looked at the mirror.

"Speculate on what information is most important to me, and show it to me."

The mirror began to shimmer. More than a minute passed while the mirror shimmered. "SPECULATION: THE INFORMATION MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU IS ALSO INFORMATION YOU DO NOT HAVE: 'WHAT IS THAT CREATURE THAT ATTACKED YOU?' THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO ANALYZE THE CREATURE, OR ANYTHING DIRECTLY RELATED TO IT'S ACTIONS, BEHAVIOR, OR COMPOSITION. THIS DEVICE IS ALSO UNABLE TO ANALYZE THE PRECISE REASONS WHY THE LIFE OF MARCO DIAZ HAS BEEN IMPERILED, WHICH IMPLIES THAT MARCO'S FATE IS CONNECTED TO THE ATTACK YOU SUFFERED. LEARNING MORE ABOUT THAT CREATURE IS CRITICAL TO UNDERSTANDING HOW TO SAVE MARCO." Consensus "0.7810", Confidence "0.7560"

Star set the mirror down, and closed her eyes.

_I need to learn more about that creature._

That was a simple enough mission statement.

_But how?_

"Where can I learn more about that creature?"

The mirror shimmered briefly. "THIS DEVICE CANNOT ANALYZE THE DATA CONNECTED TO THE CREATURE, AND THUS IT CANNOT FIND ANY TEXTS OR INDIVIDUALS THAT KNOW ABOUT ITS NATURE."

"Speculate. Same question."

"SPECULATION: IN THE MEWNIAN ROYAL LIBRARY, DEEP IN THE ARCHIVES, THERE IS A TOME THAT EXHIBITS DATA CORRUPTION QUITE SIMILAR TO THAT WHICH THE CREATURE EXHIBITED. THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT IT WILL CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, BUT THERE IS ALSO A GOOD CHANCE THAT IT COULD BE DANGEROUS TO EVEN TOUCH, MUCH LESS READ." Consensus "1.0000", Confidence "0.9990"

Star raised an eyebrow. Those were really confident numbers. "Show me the contents of that, uh, 'tome'."

"ERROR: THE CORRUPTED DATA IS PREVENTING THIS DEVICE FROM PRESENTING THE CONTENTS OF THIS TOME."

Star sighed. "Alright, then I guess I'm going to have to go there myself."

There was a knock at her door. Marco said from behind the door, "Hey Star. You awake?"

"Yeah. Come in."

Marco walked into the room, still wearing his pajamas from last night. "My dad just finished making breakfast."

Star hopped up from her bed, looked at Marco, and immediately felt disarmed.

He had a pleasant, neutral smile on his face. Star couldn't help but smile back in return.

But as she did this, Marco began to frown. "Hey, how are you feeling, you know, after last night?"

Star's smile faltered, slightly. "I'll... I'll be okay. What did your dad make?" Star asked, trying to quickly steer the conversation away from herself.

Marco shrugged. "He said it was something he really liked when he was a kid. I can't pronounce the name, but it smelled pretty good."

"Yaaaay!" Putting on this show of enthusiasm was all she could do to mask her emotions.

They walked down the stairs to the kitchen table, where Star could smell the breakfast. It did indeed smell quite nice.

"Hey Marco. Do you and Jackie have any plans today?"

Marco sat down at the table. "No, Jackie has some stuff she's doing with her friends today."

"Okay, good. We... May need to go on a bit of a field trip today."

Marco developed a suspicious look on his face. "Star, didn't your mom specifically tell you not to go on any adventures?"

Star waved her hand in the air. "Relax. We're not going anywhere dangerous. We're just going to the library back home."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Star, no offense, but if a Mewnian library is anything like Quest Buy, that kind of sounds like you're lying to me."

Star rolled her eyes. "No. Mewnian libraries are just as boring as Earth libraries. Though..." Star paused with a thoughtful look on her face. "We do have to go down into the archives. There might be some danger down there, depending on how tidy they keep them."

Marco let out an exasperated sigh. "What are the archives?"

"It's basically where they keep all the books and stuff that the library doesn't just want to toss out, but which people barely ever request anymore."

"Fair enough. So why are we going there?"

Star glanced in the direction of Marco's parents. They were both in the kitchen, where Angie was helping Raphael divide up the breakfast into portions for each of them. Then, in a quiet voice, she said to Marco, "I want to look up information about that creature we fought."

Marco's expression became serious. "Why can't you just ask the mirror about it?"

"Apparently, the 'data' or whatever about that creature is unreadable by the mirror. But it was able to speculate that there's a book in the archives that would have useful information."

"Speculate? So it doesn't know? I thought it was like, an All-Seeing Mirror or something."

"Not exactly, it has to—" Star broke off her sentence. "Wait, what did you call it?"

"Uhh. An 'All-Seeing Mirror'?"

Star stared at him briefly. _That's a conspicuous choice of name._

"Star?"

Star shook her head. "Uh, anyways. The Mirror knows a 'lot' of stuff, but sometimes there's stuff it can't give an objective answer. What it can do instead is simulate the question as though it were posed to us, and then try to answer the way we would, but with its knowledge and analytical skills. I'll... Show you how it works sometime. It's a little weird, but sometimes it can give useful answers to stuff that doesn't have objective truths. Or, you know, questions that involve that abomination."

Marco averted his gaze. "Alright. But why do you want to look up stuff about that creature?"

Star averted her own gaze. "I... There's stuff that's been bugging me since we left that cave."

"Related to your nightmares?"

"You could say that."

Marco nodded. "Alright, I'll help... As long as you promise that this isn't some kind of scheme to run off and do something else. I'd kinda like to have a break from the adventures, at least for a little while."

"I promise."

Angie set down a plate of food in front of Star and Marco. "What do you promise?"

Star looked up at Angie. "Marco and I are going to visit the library back home. I'm promising Marco that it's not a ruse to go run off and fight monsters."

Angie got a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry. We're not going to get into any time travel nonsense. My parents are going to be there, and if we get in trouble, they'll be able to help us get out of it. We're not going to vanish for another month."

Angie smiled. "Well, as long as your parents are there."

"Thanks for the breakfast, by the way, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz!"

Raphael popped his head into the room. "Try it! I want to know what you think!"

The food looked like some kind of hash browns, though seasoned quite significantly. Star agreed with Marco's earlier assessment: it did smell really good. Both she and Marco took a bite from their respective plates.

Hash browns did appear to be the operative descriptor, though different from anything Star had had before. They tasted really good...

...Except for the aftertaste. Every time Star finished chewing a bite, it was like the food was taking on a metallic taste. She could wash it out with another bite of the food, but really, it was just prolonging the issue.

Raphael looked concerned. "You have a look on your face."

Star answered as diplomatically as she could. "It tastes really good, it's just... The aftertaste is a bit weird to get used to."

Raphael grinned. "Well, it's based on how my mom used to prepare them. One of the herbs must be playing with your Mewnian palette."

Star smiled. "Yeah, I guess that would explain—"

She noticed Marco shaking his head out of the corner of her vision. After swallowing a bite, he said, "actually, I'm noticing it too."

Raphael frowned. "Could I try yours?"

Marco offered a bite to his dad.

Raphael shewed it, as Angie got a bite of her own. "Tastes fine to me. I haven't used anything more unusual than anything you've eaten before, Marco."

Marco nodded. "Yeah, I recognize the taste. But... It's like a weird... I don't know."

Star took another bite. After swallowing, she asked Marco, "is it, like, a Metallic aftertaste to you?"

Marco's eyes widened. "Actually, yeah."

Both Raphael and Angie looked at each other, with a disheartened expression on their faces.

Star threw up her arms apologetically. "I don't want to be ungrateful. This is good food. Thank you so much."

Raphael smiled. "Maybe one of the herbs went bad."

"Maybe."

* * *

Now dressed in their proper clothes, Marco and Star stood in Star's bedroom. Star had the mirror held out. On it was a diagram that the mirror had rendered after she asked where the book was that they needed. The mirror was unable to pinpoint its exact location, but it was able to narrow down the general vicinity to only a specific column in the Archives, along with a vague description of how it would look. Star was busy writing as much as she could from the mirror.

"Aren't we going to take the mirror with us?" Marco asked.

Star shook her head. "I don't want my mom to catch me with it. It would be too difficult to explain, and it might lead to her realizing how much I lied originally." She finished writing, and took the mirror and placed it inside her closet, before locking the closet with her wand. "Alright. I think we have everything we need."

Marco was staring out one of the windows, as though he were staring at something Star couldn't see from her angle. "Hey, Star?"

"Yeah?" She turned to her wall mirror. "Call Mom."

"Does...?" Marco's voice trailed off.

"Marco?"

Marco squinted briefly, then shook his head. "Uh, never mind."

"What is it?"

"Do your windows have any spells on them?"

Star blinked. "What kind of question is that? What kind of spells would I have on them?"

Marco shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe like, stuff to keep the sun from shining in, or to keep people from spying on you through your windows?"

"Nope, I haven't cast any spells like that. Why?"

Marco shrugged. "I was just curious."

Star was about to object when Moon appeared on the wall mirror. "Hi dear. What do you need?"

Star put on a smile. "Hi Mom. We need to come home for a few hours. I'm working on my wand training, and I need to do some spell research. I'd use my spell book, but... Well, you know."

Moon cast a suspicious look at Star. "Really? _You_ want to go to the library? You, who once tore up the books in your room because they didn't have any pictures in them?"

Star threw up her arms. "Well, it's not like I have a choice. But the spells I'm trying to cast aren't working, and I need to research why."

Moon continued to stare at Star for a few more seconds, but then relented. "Alright. You can come home. But you're not to leave the castle, you understand? I'll know if you try to leave."

Star placed her hand on her heart. "I promise not to leave the castle."

This direct promise made Moon's eyes widen. "... Huh. Alright, let me open up a portal."

The call ended, and a few seconds later, a portal opened up adjacent to Star. "Alright, let's go."

Both she and Marco stepped through the portal, and arrived in the Mewnian throne room. Moon was standing there, holding the Dimensional Scissors she had confiscated from Star.

Star looked at the scissors. "Don't you have your own pair you use?"

Moon smiled slyly. "Well, as a matter of fact, this pair that you irresponsibly acquired for yourself are nicer than mine. So I decided it was time for an upgrade."

Star grinned sheepishly.

Moon regained her composure. "So you're only going to the library?"

"We're probably going to be spending time in the archives as well, if that's okay."

Moon's eyes widened. "I suppose that's okay. I don't think I've ordered anyone to clean down there in years. It could be dirty down there."

Marco suddenly looked bothered by this revelation.

Star shrugged. "Mmmmaybe we'll do a little clean up while we're there. No promises."

Moon looked thoughtful at the suggestion. "That would be nice..." Her face suddenly scrunched up. "Wait. I've seen your room before. Don't try to clean up. I'll have one or two of the servants do a pass after you leave."

"Eh heh heh heh heh."

"Where exactly are you going in the archives?"

Star consulted the piece of paper she had written onto. "Uhh, B78."

Moon looked shocked. "That's pretty deep. What do you need that's all the way down there?"

"I'm not actually sure yet. I pulled the location from Glossaryk's notes that he left behind."

Moon raised an eyebrow.

"He wouldn't leave me something so cryptic unless it would be useful to me."

Moon looked off into the distance. "I suppose. Alright. Don't stay down there too long. I'll send people to retrieve you if you're down there too long."

"That's probably a good idea. Come on, Marco."

Both Star and Marco began to walk through the palace.

Marco looked around at the ornate design of the castle. "You know, I know you're a princess and all, but I keep forgetting that when we're not literally spending time in your house. It's, uh... Big."

"I used to get lost inside my own house when I was little."

Marco chuckled. "Yeah I, uh, never had that kind of experience."

Star and Marco walked into the library. Marco stared straight upwards at the absurd height of the bookshelves. "Yeah, speaking of things that are really big..."

"Come on."

Star was walking to the other side of the library.

"The elevator down to the archives is in the back."

Before they reached the elevator, however, one of the librarians approached them, blocking their path. "Hold up!"

Star stopped in front of her. "Don't worry, we're just going to the archives."

The mewman woman looked slightly disappointed. "Ah. Uh, are you sure?"

Star and Marco looked at each other. "Is something wrong?" Star asked.

She glanced at the ceiling. "Well, maintenance told me they were going to replace some of the wiring this week throughout the entire library. Right now, I don't think there's any lights down there."

Star held up her wand. "We have a light source. We'll be fine."

The Librarian shrugged. "Alright. Just be careful. We haven't cleaned in ages."

"Will do."

Star and Marco stepped inside the elevator. There were a few normal levels below the library, and then a long series of levels all corresponding to the Archives. "Alright, we need... Level B78."

Star looked at the elevator panel. B78 was not the lowest level of the Archives, but it was very close to it.

"Oof. We're going deep underground."

Marco shivered.

The elevator was extremely slow, so Star and Marco had a fair amount of time just standing in the elevator.

Around B32, Star sat on the floor. "Ugh. Yet another reason I hate libraries."

Marco kept staring at the display above the door. "You know, Star. I don't think you were lying to me. But we are descending deep underground again."

"Is that a problem?"

Marco folded his arms. "I don't know. But I've got this feeling in the back of my mind, same as I felt when we were in that cave."

Star didn't respond to that for awhile. Because she was feeling it too. Like every few meters they descended, they got closer to something... terrifying.

B78.


	10. THE HUNTERS AND THEIR PREY

The elevator doors opened to pitch blackness. Both Marco and Star's hearts sank as they stepped out into the archives. A thick smell of mildew hung in the air. Star cast a spell to light up her wand.

It didn't do much good. The light from Star's wand was quite bright, but even staring straight forwards, she and Marco couldn't see the opposite wall.

In fact, there was something very unsettling about what Star was seeing. The air didn't look particularly dusty, but it was like the light was being obscured by something. A light source as bright as Star's wand should have lit up quite a lot of the room, but Star's vision was limited to only about 5 meters in front of herself, beyond which was an opaque sea of blackness.

"You know where we're going, right?" Marco asked Star.

Star held out the piece of paper. "Yeah."

They walked without speaking down the rows of the archives, passing an uncountable number of books and boxes, quickly losing sight of the elevator they had arrived on. The floor creaked as they walked, both Star and Marco felt cold, and very, very alone.

As though guided by instinct, Star's hand reached to to grasp Marco's. There was a brief moment of hesitation, where Marco's hand hung limply against Star's, but after a few seconds, Marco held her hand back.

One of the floorboards creaked especially loudly, and Marco jumped and turned around, thinking he'd heard it from behind them.

"Come on, Marco."

At a certain point, it felt like they were walking on a treadmill. They'd walk past a row of bookshelves, and then another, and then the next felt like it was the same as the first.

After wandering in the darkness for what must have been almost ten minutes, with only the light from Star's wand to guide them, they arrived at where Star's directions were leading them. Star began checking the codes on the shelves, trying to narrow down which shelf they needed to start examining. "Alright. I think it's this whole section here," she said, pointing at the column they had stopped in front of.

Marco looked upwards as the column faded into blackness. "Uh, I really hope the book is down here. I don't want to have to climb that."

Star looked around until she saw a large wheeled-ladder sitting a fair distance down the aisle. "You won't have to. You'll just have to hold it steady." She walked up to the ladder, checked it to make sure it was still in good condition, and wheeled it back towards the column where Marco was standing. She began to climb it, and kept gingerly testing it on each step, making sure nothing was broken. "Alright. I'll be back." She began to climb upwards.

After about 20 seconds, she suddenly heard Marco shout, "STAR!"

She looked down, and saw to her surprise that she could no longer see the floor, or Marco. "Marco?! Are you okay?"

He replied back, his voice sounding closer to her than she felt it should. "I guess. I can't see anything though."

"Alright. I'll try to make this quick."

She climbed for another minute, until she reached the level where the book was supposed to be. She looked at the shelf, trying to work out the titles. " _On the Geology of Mewnie. Studies of Mewnian Geological history._ What could she possibly need that she'd find here?"

Suddenly, something caught her eye. A large, thick textbook that was colored very differently from the surrounding books. Unlike the other books, which were largely beige and black, this one was a sickly blue-green color. Star checked the notes: _color of seaweed, or possibly swamp grass._ The book also didn't have a title on it. Star carefully pulled it out, and propped it up on the ladder so that she could look at the first page.

The first page had only some crude handwriting scrawled across the entire page, and Star gasped as she read the solitary sentence.

 

" _DO NOT READ THIS BOOK._ _—_ Princess Eclipsa"

 

There were a million-and-one questions that this raised. Star suppressed all of them and called out to Marco: "Hey Marco, I have a candidate."

She could barely hear his voice from her position at the top of the ladder: "Good. I can't see anything."

Star quickly climbed back down the ladder, the large textbook in tow. Marco shielded his eyes from the light of Star's wand as Star descended.

Star sat on the floor and began to flip open the textbook. But the moment she tried to flip through the pages, the book snapped, and opened to the second page. Star tried to flip the pages again, but the book returned to the second page.

"What? Why won't..." Star began to read the page it was flipping to:

" _Seriously. Stop reading this book. No one should be reading this book. There is nothing in this book that is of value to you, and I promise you that nothing good will come from trying to delve further into it._

_If you are looking for a way to find wealth, there are better spells elsewhere to be found. If you are foolishly trying to undo death, this knowledge won't help you. If you want to raze a kingdom to the ground, there are a thousand spells more reliable and more accessible than what is in this book._

_What this book delves into is an ancient entity, whose very being intersects with all of creation, in every dimension, across the lifespan of the universe. It is more horrible and beautiful than comprehensible, and there is nothing to be gained from learning anything about it._

_I know this from hard-won experience. I spent too long trying to learn these secrets myself, and it is through sheer fortune and sacrifice that I lived to regret my efforts in the first place._

_I have transcribed a recipe at the bottom of this page. It is a very finely tuned recipe for an Amnesia Potion, which will erase your knowledge of this book, where you found it, and anything related to the secrets contained within it. I have made the recipe as simple to reproduce as possible, so that even the most novice of alchemists can produce it themselves. I will be taking it myself as soon as I succeed in hiding away this book._

_There is one, and exactly one, reason for which you should ever continue to read this book, and that reason, barring no exception, is if you have already disregarded this warning, read this book prior to now, and are now looking for a way to fix whatever unspeakable horror you've unleashed. By all rights I ought to have simply destroyed this book: but I recognize that even I cannot predict every scenario that might have led you to this book. So I am allowing it to survive._

_This is, however, your final warning. Do not read this book. Find something else to bring prosperity to the people, or find something else to enact your terrible revenge._

_If, even knowing all of this, you still seek to learn what is in this book, lay it flat on the floor, and speak aloud 'I, [Your Name], understand your warning, but I am going to read this book anyways.' This book will then allow you to continue to read through the remaining pages."_

Below this text, there was a four-step process for producing the aforementioned amnesia potion, with an added note that read " _I have anonymously amended the Mewnie Constitution to mandate that all Royal Alchemy Labs keep at least 120 doses of this concoction available at all times, made freely available to any entity, be they Mewman or Monster, who wishes to consume it."_

"Wow." Marco uttered, staring at the page.

"Yeah."

"So how do we know if this is really the book we need?"

Star sighed. "Well, it was in the place where the mirror said it would be. And all the other books looked pretty mundane." She looked up at Marco. "I'm going to open it, and then I'm going to skim it and see if I can find anything regarding the creature that attacked us. If I can't, then we put it back, and we go visit one of the alchemy labs to get that potion."

"How do we know that even opening it won't unleash some kind of awful horror?"

"We don't. This is Eclipsa we're talking about. But..." She looked back at the warning. "She did say that one good reason to open the book is if we're cleaning up a mess that was already created. So I'm willing to bet that as long as we don't cast any spells in this thing, or try to replicate anything it describes, we'll be safe."

Marco gulped. "I don't know."

"Marco."

They both turned to look directly at each other.

"Do you trust me?"

Marco nodded, without hesitation.

"Alright." Star set the book on the ground. "I, Star Butterfly, and Marco Diaz, understand your warning, but we're going to read this book anyways."

The book flapped upwards violently, but then fell back to the ground and became silent. Star picked it up, and tried to flip through its pages again, finding that the book was no longer stymieing her efforts.

"Okay. I think the most obvious way to know if this really is the book we need is to figure out if it has that creature in here, or at least a reference to it." She checked the back of the book, and began to scan through the glossary (boy did she miss Glossaryk!) for any reference to a creature or monster. The glossary wasn't well organized—it wasn't even alphabetized!—and eventually, Star gave up and simply began flipping through the pages one by one. Most of the pages were pure text, occasionally broken up by headers, but every now and then, it was illustrated with sketches and pictures. There were hundreds of pages, and many of them were unevenly sized, and even seemed to have differently colored paper backing them, as though it had been composed with whatever happened to be lying around at any given time. She also noticed that at various points, pages, entire sections even, had been ripped out, with only a handwritten note by Eclipsa vaguely explaining that " _This knowledge is too dangerous, and I've removed it."_

Star gasped suddenly as she flipped to a page that was well into the hundreds, not anywhere near halfway through the book. On this page, there was a detailed sketch of what Star immediately knew was the creature they had encountered. "Oh my gosh. Marco. This is it."

Marco had been sitting, playing with his phone, when Star called to him. He leaned over, and immediately faceplanted into the book.

"Marco? Are you okay?"

She tried to nudge him, and he simply rolled over, his eyes glazed over, a look of shock on his face.

Panic swelled in Star, as she grabbed his shoulders. "Marco?! Marco, are you awake? Say something!"

She was about to try to slap him—do something to wake him up!—when he came to, and began to look wildly around in the darkness. "Huh?!"

Star waved her hand in front of him. "Hey, are you alright?"

Marco blinked several times. "I... I think so."

"You passed out when I showed you the sketch."

"Yeah... I saw it, and next thing I knew, I was laying on the floor."

Star looked at it. It was truly awful to look at, but she hadn't had any problems when she saw it... Had she? Wouldn't Marco have shaken her awake if she had had a similar reaction?

Except... That was exactly what happened in the cave. When she saw it, and he didn't.

"Can you look at it now?" She asked, propping the image in his direction.

Marco instinctively tried to avert his gaze, but Star was quicker, and he ended up seeing the sketch again. He didn't pass out this time though. "Ah! Uh. I guess I can."

Star turned to look at the text next to the image. "A Physically Materialized Artificer. So I guess that's what they're called: Artificers." Star closed the book. "Alright. I think it's fair to say that we've found the right book. But this thing is like a thousand pages, and I don't want to read the whole thing here. Plus," she looked around, "this place is really, really creepy."

Star stood up, and packed the book under her arm. She turned to the corridor, and froze in place.

A pair of glowing red eyes were looking at her, from the darkness. Their irises were tall, like those of a lizard, and their gaze stared into Star, as though trying to burn her. Each of them were larger than her head.

Star's arms left leaden, and she began to point at it. "What... is that?"

"What is what?"

Marco had just finished standing up, and he was now looking in the direction Star was pointing.

"Wha—" Star briefly turned to Marco to direct his attention, before turning back, to point back at the eyes.

Marco stared in shock. "What in the—"

A deafening roar bellowed from the direction of the eyes, as they began to slant. Then, the ground began to tremble, as they began to move towards the two of them.

Star, acting as quickly as she could, whipped out her wand, and toppled several bookshelves in front of them. Then, gripping Marco's hand as tightly as she could, she, closely followed by Marco, broke into a sprint, running away from it. She continued to topple bookshelves as she ran, hearing the entity growling and tearing its way through the objects that were between them.

Star skidded as they reached an intersection in the bookshelves, and Star looked around. In the direction of the elevator was another pair of red eyes, these shaped somewhat differently, but unmistakably in the same vein. Star cast another spell, toppling more books, and she and Marco ran down a different path. Unfortunately, they were now moving in an opposite direction of where the elevator was, and Star used a spell to accelerate their speed.

At the next intersection, Star tried to run in the direction of the elevator, but another pair of eyes appeared here. She spun around, and saw that there were now at least 4 pairs of eyes, one down each direction. "Oh no."

"What do we do?!"

Each of the entities began to groan an awful sound. Star made a decision. She aimed a spell at the pair of red eyes that were in the direction of the elevator. The entity fell backwards, bellowing angrily as it did so. Star cast another spell, and vaulted them both into the air, over the entity. Star shone a light down on it, to try to illuminate it, but she quickly found that she had vaulted them too high, and the light wasn't reaching them.

In the direction of the elevator, there was only darkness. Several pairs of eyes were behind them, and a few were beginning to emerge to the sides. "RUN!" They sprinted into the darkness, while Star continued to rain down spells, either on the bookshelves to block paths, or at the entities themselves.

As they ran, they continued to roar. The cacophony of noises, while deafening, had a strange definition to them. For the briefest of moments, Star focused on the noise.

It almost sounded like harsh breathing.

Finally, the elevator was in sight. Star used a spell to activate the doors, and to her great elation, the doors opened immediately. Star and Marco dashed inside of the elevator, smacked the buttons for the first floor and the door close button, and Star stood guard, preparing to launch a spell, should anything get near them. She didn't see anything in the darkness, but she could still hear them growling and tearing their way towards them.

Right as the doors were about to close, she saw one of the pairs of eyes again, and as the doors closed, there was a thunderous bang, as it made contact with the closed doors. The elevator ascended, and the awful sounds of _something_ tearing at the door began to drift downwards, until soon, they couldn't be heard anymore.

Star remained vigilant: she didn't know if it would continue to chase them up the elevator shaft.

"Star..."

Marco tried to catch his breath from the sprinting.

"I heard them. And saw them, or at least their eyes."

"Yeah."

"You think they were some of those Artificers?"

Star shook her head. "I have no idea. The one we encountered in the cave didn't have those large eyes though."

Floor B56.

Suddenly, Marco grabbed Star by the shoulders, an angry look on his face. "What the hell was this?"

She hadn't heard him yell like this before, nor use that kind of language.

"You said we weren't here to get into any kind of danger. Why did you bring me here? What's so important about that book?"

"I don't know!" Star cried out.

Marco shook his head. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"The archives are just like, the basement of the library! I had no idea anything would be down there."

Marco calmed slightly, but didn't remove his hands. "Why did we come for that book?"

"I..." Star grabbed at her hair and began to run her fingers through it. "I thought it could help me. And I still think it will! I just..."

Marco folded his arms, but didn't say anything.

"I'll try to explain things when we get back to your house."

Marco and Star didn't say anything else for the duration they were in the elevator, Star remained tensed and prepared to attack if that thing tried to attack them.

Floor 1.

The doors opened.

Star remained poised, looking around.

The lights were still on in the library, but all the people were gone.

Star and Marco cautiously made their way out of the elevator.

Star whispered, "where did everyone go?"

They were now out in the open, in the middle of the library. There was still no one there, but there was also no creature trying to kill them.

Ahead, Star saw someone approach the doors of the library, and let themselves in.

Shortly after they did, several more people began to walk into the library. Some of them prostrated themselves in front of the princess, acknowledging her, while others simply ignored them. More people began to file into the library.

Star stopped where she stood. "So... Did everyone just... leave? And are only now coming back?"

They began walking again, and as they walked out of the library doors, they saw Moon approaching them, with a mild look of concern on her face.

"Mom!" Star quickly rearranged her face to mask her latent horror.

"Oh, there you are, dear."

Star gave a suspicious look to her mother. "Is... Something the matter?"

"Ah. I was going to suggest to you that you not go into the Archives. I was just informed that they are going to fix the wiring down there, and you probably won't have any lights in the Archives."

Star and Marco looked at each other, then at the book tucked under Star's arm. "Uh, we were already down there. And we already found what we needed."

"Oh. Really? How'd you get down there so quickly? The elevator moves so slowly..."

Star looked quickly at Marco. "I sped the elevator up, with magic." She twirled her wand.

Moon blinked, and then had a concerned look on her face. "Hmm. I'll need to put in an order to get the elevator repaired, won't I?"

Star pouted. "The elevator is fine!"

"Hmm. We'll see. Is there anything else you need to do at home?"

"No, we got what we needed."

Moon whipped out the dimensional scissors. "Alright. Why don't you go back to the Diaz's?"

"What, trying to get rid of us?"

Moon narrowed her eyes. "I'm trying to make sure you don't have any opportunities to sneak off. Let me know if you need anything else, alright honey?" Moon opened up the portal.

"Alright. Love you, mom."

"Love you too, sweetie."

Star and Marco stepped through the portal, and arrived back in the Diaz household.

The moment the portal closed, both Star and Marco's nerves shattered at once. Marco slumped into Star's desk chair, and Star flopped down onto her bed, tossing the book onto the desk.

"What. The. Crap."

Both Marco and Star said this simultaneously. Marco quickly turned to Star. "Alright, Star. Out with it. What's going on? What were those creatures down there, why where they down there, and what's the point of that book?"

Star sighed. "I don't know the first, and I'll get to the latter in a moment, but I'm afraid to answer the second question, 'where they came from.'"

"What do you mean?"

"I think we brought them there."


	11. ORIGINAL SIN

"We _brought_ them there?" Marco asked aloud, incredulous at Star's suggestion.

Star had gotten up from her bed, and walked over to her closet to retrieve the mirror.

"Star, I do not remember bringing a pair of giant red eyes to the library, much less whatever it was that they were attached to."

Star opened the closet, pulled out the mirror (which had been sitting exactly where she left it), and she asked the mirror, "What were the creatures we encountered in the Archives?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO IDENTIFY ANY SUCH―"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Star said, dismissing the mirror. She set the mirror down on her desk next to Marco, grabbed the book, and returned to her bed. Before opening it, she looked up at Marco. "It's a little difficult to explain, and I might be wrong."

Marco spun around on Star's chair so that he was sitting on it backwards. "So it's a theory you have."

"Well," Star said, opening the book. "I'm hoping that this will offer a few explanations, which will confirm or debunk my theory. This," she said, pointing at the book, "is the key we've been missing. The lead we need."

"The 'lead'? To what?"

"To―"

Star stopped immediately. _Crap. He still doesn't know. I haven't told him._

"… To understanding my nightmares."

Marco sighed. "Oh my god. Star. There's nothing about your nightmares to 'understand'."

"It's not just about understanding them. It's about making them go away."

"Star. Stop."

Star looked up at Marco, who had a slightly guilty look on his face. He sighed deeply before he continued. "I really didn't want to bring this up. But you don't leave me any choice."

_Any choice? What is he talking about?_

"Jackie told me about your conversation with her."

Star flinched. "When did she…?"

"She texted me after she left last night." Marco had a deeply sympathetic look on his face. "I get it, Star. I know you're worried about me. You think you can't protect me, that if you screw up, something bad could happen to me."

Star looked away. There was definitely truth to what he was saying, even if the context of it was all wrong.

"And now," he pointed at the book, "you're looking for some kind of ultra-spell, that will keep me safe. To the point where you're even willing to use some kind of black magic so evil that the Mewnie Queen of Darkness herself wiped her own memory of it because of how horrified she was of it. Don't you see what this is doing to you?"

"That's not what I'm looking for!" Star retorted, standing up and allowing the book to slide onto her bed. "I didn't lie, Marco. The only thing I'm trying to do is figure out more about that creature. Okay, you're right about one thing. I am trying to protect you. But I'm not looking for a spell, or a curse, or whatever. I just want to make sure..."

"What?" Marco seemed impatient this time.

"... That there's nothing wrong with us."

Marco blinked at her. "What? What do you mean?"

Star looked in the direction of the Diaz' kitchen. "Why did the food taste metallic this morning?"

Marco looked taken aback. "I... You heard my dad. There was something wrong with one of the herbs. Probably. Maybe he just messed up the recipe."

Star shook her head. "It wasn't the food, Marco. It was us."

Marco scrunched up his face. "There's... Star, that doesn't make... Any..." his voice trailed off, as a look of comprehension began to form on his face. "Wait." He walked over to the window, and began to look outside. "Star, take a look outside for a second."

Star walked over to the window, and was taken aback when she looked outside.

As far as she could tell, based on her clock, it was just past noon. But when she looked outside, even as the sun shone from high up in the sky, everything outside looked dimmer than usual, with a red tint, almost like it was sunset.

"You remember when I asked this morning if there were any spells cast on your windows?"

"Yeah?"

"You maintain that you didn't do anything?"

"Of course."

Marco looked around the neighborhood. "Let's step outside."

Star and Marco walked out of the room, down the stairs ( _do they seem more uneven than usual?_ ) and they stepped outside.

It was a beautiful day, overall, but everything had an orange tint to it, as though seen at sunset.

Marco continued to look around. "Star." He turned to her. "What's going on?"

Angie saw the two of them, and walked over to them. "Oh, you're back! And so soon!"

Star turned her head to face her. "Mrs. Diaz, does anything look unusual outside?"

Angie frowned as she looked around. "Well, it's a bright sunny day, and you two aren't outside playing. I'd say that's pretty unusual!"

Star smiled. "Thanks. That's all we needed."

Angie smiled back and walked back inside.

Once she was out of earshot, Star began to speak. "She's not seeing what we're seeing, Marco. And... I don't know for sure, but I don't think our perceptions of reality are the correct ones."

Marco shook his head. "How did I not notice before?"

"Because it's been gradual. Bit by bit, the way we're perceiving things is changing. The way we see things. The way things taste. Did you notice the stairs being a bit more uneven than normal?"

Marco placed his head on his forehead. "This is why you got that book." He turned to Star. "You think there's an explanation in there?"

"Well, I'm going to find out."

"What exactly did you mean, before, when you said we 'brought those creatures with us' into the Archives?"

"I don't know for sure, and I need to do some research in that book, but I think they're a part of this. I think those creatures manifesting themselves is part of what's happening to us."

Marco shivered. "Are we safe?"

"I don't know. So far, we haven't seen those things manifest anywhere above ground. It seems like the only time we end up in danger is when we go underground in Mewnie. So for now, if we stay above ground, we're probably safe."

"Probably."

Star began to walk back to her room. "Well, I'm going to find out." She paused at the foot of the stairs. "Do you want to help me?"

Marco looked at the kitchen. "I will in a little while. I... Kind of want to rest for a little while."

"I understand."

"Star."

Star stopped again.

"Let me know anything you discover, alright? And yell if something bad happens."

"I will," Star said, hoping it wasn't going to end up being a lie.

* * *

_The Artificers._

_I won't repeat myself with regaling the disastrous Iris experiment. Suffice to say, what's done is done, and now, we have to deal with them._

_The sole benefit I'm afforded is that the Artificers refuse to attempt to harm me. That makes it convenient for walking amongst them. Or at least as convenient as it can be when the very foundations of reality are screaming at you from all directions because your brain can't comprehend what you're standing among._

_But this protection has been afforded to me, and me exclusively. They are a danger to everyone I love and care about, which is why I've locked the Artificers away where no one else shall ever have a chance of encountering them._

_The interesting thing about them (aside from, you know, everything; again, I reference the Iris Experiment) is that despite their mortal origins, as they are now, they exhibit properties that seem to suggest entirely alien origins. I'd love to talk to them. To find out how much of their original minds remain, if any, and if their new minds are truly as mindless as they appear to my ignorant senses._

_It's extremely difficult to see their true forms, and it took me an absurdly long time before I was able to form a reproducible procedure for exposing their true forms. Artificers don't merely exist in Mortal space. They also exist in Mind space, occupying the space in between the minds of any mortal or mortals who attempt to cohabitate with them. So "exposing their true form" isn't really about revealing their honest appearance so much as it is about pushing them out of one plane of reality, forcing them to exist only in the other._

_In general, when doing this, I strongly advise that you try to force their materialization in the Mind space. Ironically, they're far less horrifying to comprehend in that space, and because of the strength of the mortal mind, even in the face of their insanity-inducing nature, it's quite easy for a mortal to successfully subdue a weakened Artificer in the Mind space, and even kill it, should that be your intent. This procedure is rather uncomplicated: strike it until it goes down. I recommend bringing friends, as it is much bigger than you, much faster than you, much stronger than you, and although its cognitive abilities are incomprehensible, it does seem to understand basic logistical tactics. It's highly resistant to magic attacks, but ordinary steel is sufficient to wound an Artificer, though if you do plan to hunt one of them, I strongly recommend that steel be the least of what you bring: they are definitely capable of breaking steel weapons, if they out maneuver you._

_Once the weakened Artificer is fully materialized in the Mind space, it poses little threat, except to the most dull of mortal minds. A single thought, directed strongly at the Artificer, is sufficient to destroy it,_

_On the other hand, forcing an Artificer to materialize in the Mortal space is a foolhardy, risky strategy. To date, I've never been able to fully subdue an Artificer that has physically materialized, and of those I've seen attempt to do so themselves, they've all met with horrific fates, not least of which was their violent deaths. First of all, it's extremely difficult to force an unweakened Artificer out of the Mind space. The basic mechanism is to expand your mind around the Artificer, then close the space within. If this makes no sense to you, then you most definitely do not possess the capacity to perform this technique._

_This is greatly simplified and made easier when attempted by multiple people. Indeed, because the Artificer prefers the space between minds much more than it prefers the space around the mind, something as simple as a burst of emotion (I was even able to replicate the phenomenon with lovers who had simply held hands!) between two or more people will often accidentally force the Artificer out of the Mind space, often without those responsible even aware of what they've done._

_But an Artificer anchored in the Mortal space is a true terror to behold. I've sketched the creature out as accurately as I can (I've seen it so many times that at this point the image is basically burned into my brain), and I advise taking a good look at that sketch before you attempt to encounter it yourself, as I found that every single time an unprepared mortal witnessed the physical form of an Artificer, they suffered immediate paralysis._

_(ADDENDUM: This appears to happen from just viewing the sketch as well. Since it only ever seems to happen the very first time a mortal sees the image, I'm using my sketches as a form of "Mental Vaccination" for anyone who assists me in my research, as it is definitely preferable for my test subjects to pass out in the safety of the palace than it is for my test subjects to pass out in a genuinely life threatening situation in the field)_

_The paralysis ends up being the least concerning part of a Physical Artificer, however. A Physical Artificer is many times faster, thousands of times stronger, and even under extremely controlled circumstances, I have lost both test subjects and research assistants to Physically materialized Artificers (which, incidentally, is what prompted my eventual shutdown of my research into the Artificers, as I couldn't bear the guilt of continuing to put lives at risk in the name of my intellectual curiosity)._

_In cases where the subject (or subjects) are paralyzed, I've seen a rather unusual phenomenon occur, though it only happened a few times out of the many trials that fulfilled these requirements. The Artificer lunges towards its victims, but instead of bifurcating (among other things) its victims, it instead stops in front of them, and makes, with its appendages, touch contact with the victims' foreheads. For reasons I've been unable to identify, this causes the Artificer to immediately annihilate itself, after which, a Doom Curse is placed on its victims. (I've moved the section about the Doom Curse to later in this book, as the "Doom Curse" is basically just a catch-all term for a wide variety of curses that Artificers inflict, and there's too much to discuss to keep it buried in this section). We did observe this behavior exactly once when only some of the subjects were paralyzed, but we didn't find any conclusive data that explained the deviation in behavior._

_I have an open hypothesis: namely, that the "Doom Curse" is simply the symptoms resulting from the Artificer infecting and possessing the bodies of whomever it afflicts. But it remains a hypothesis, and one that I've been increasingly led to dismiss as time has gone on. The sole supporting evidence for this hypothesis is that the Artificer's body disintegrates, without even leaving behind ash or any byproduct of any detectable nature, either in the Mortal space or in the Mind space, and suggesting "maybe it went inside their brains" allows me to reconcile the rather obvious breakage of the laws of physics that are taking place._

_(ADDENDUM: While nothing is final, I'm officially dismissing this hypothesis. My researchers tell me they've found convincing evidence that when the Artificer annihilates itself, it transforms into various radiations, one of which is electromagnetic. While this doesn't strictly "disprove" my hypothesis—and indeed, given the nature of the Doom Curse, there may be at least be traces of truth to my hypothesis—but given that the sole support for my hypothesis was a lack of any other way to explain the Artificer's remains disappearing, it makes a lot less sense to prop it up as a plausible explanation)._

_If the Artificer behaves normally, and simply attempts to kill its victims, it will remain fully corporeal for up to one hour, or up to ten minutes after its victims perish, whichever is sooner. This does mean that a well equipped person (or, to be more frank, group of people) can survive the onslaught of a Physical Artificer if they are able to outmaneuver it for a full hour. Trapping the creature is largely ineffective, as in this state, it's too powerful for any traps we've been able to devise, physical or magical, to contain it. However, it does have a "turning radius" problem, where we've actually once been able to thwart an Artificer by simply holding a position whereby the Artificer, forever turning towards the victim, but moving too quickly to actually get closer to it, simply maintained a stable orbit around the stationary victim for the remainder of the hour, at which point we dealt with it with more conventional means._

_(ADDENDUM: Attempts to reproduce those precise conditions failed. While we were able to get a few more Artificers to exhibit the same "orbit around the victim" behavior, these other Artificers changed tactics after several minutes, slowing down until they were able to reorient themselves and attack the victim in earnest. Some quick thinking by REDACTED helped ensure the victim's survival in these cases, but it definitely demonstrated the folly of these tactics in trying to deal with a Physical Artificer)_

_My main takeaway from my experiments with the Physical Artificers is that one should never try to deal with one, and should strive solely to force the Artificer into the Mind space for subduction and elimination, rather than the other way around._

_In the next section, I've compiled my notes on the Artificer's minions._

* * *

Star reeled from the pages she had just read. There were a bunch of things to process, and Star tried to organize it all in her head.

Firstly, _Eclipsa was running experiments on these things_. And when she was still only a princess! Star tried to recall the precise history of Queen Eclipsa, to see if she could work out how old Eclipsa must have been at the time. She shook her head. _Remember the note at the beginning? I doubt there's a single textbook that actually has information on this stuff. If Eclipsa erased her own memories of these experiments, there's no doubt she did that to anyone else who was involved._

Another thought took root in her head: The Doom Curse.

When she and Marco had encountered the creature in the cave, at the moment Star's hand had touched Marco's (Star blushed, recalling that Eclipsa referred to that scenario as "lovers holding hands"), the Artificer revealed itself in its horrific glory. So without even realizing it, She and Marco had done exactly what the book said they should avoid doing at all costs: make it corporeal in the physical world. But right now, she and Marco were still alive.

Which means, whatever the "Doom Curse" is, they're afflicted with it.

Star began to flip forwards in the book, looking for the section about the Doom Curse. But a lot of things were beginning to fall into place. She didn't know what it was, but with a name like Doom Curse, and given that she now knew Marco was fated to die, it wasn't exactly difficult to connect the dots.

Whatever this Doom Curse is, it's probably the reason Marco is going to die. And it's probably also the reason that she and Marco were having perception problems. It was responsible for spawning those creatures in the Archives. Everything was leading to that.

Star turned to the mirror. "When am I going to die?"

The mirror shimmered, and at probability 0.0356, it reported "IN 57 DAYS."

Star blinked. That was when Marco was scheduled to die. But her chances were only about 3.5%. "What's the probability I survive to adulthood?"

"0.9582"

Star understood. "So, whatever is going to kill Marco has a chance of killing me too, but if I survive that, I'll probably live a full life?"

"CORRECT." Probability "0.9582".

Star turned back to the book. _That's actually technically incorrect, isn't it? Because I don't_ _care for_ _what the Mirror's 'objectivity' has to say on the matter, but a life without Marco doesn't feel particularly fulfilling._

The Doom Curse's section was buried at the back of the book. The first thing Star noticed was that a huge chunk of the section had been ripped out (and apparently _burned_?) and replaced with a large card stapled into the binding that simply read " _Half of the stuff in this section was completely wrong, and the other half had the potential to enable readers to produce the curse itself. I don't have time to sift through and figure out which information is useful and which isn't, so I'm just going to torch it all. We're not going to need it anymore anyways. I'm leaving behind a basic description of what the curse is, and the most important information regarding its consequences._ "

"Oh come on!" Star exclaimed, reading the note. But her blood ran cold when she got to the bottom of the note:

" _Besides. It's not like we ever figured out how to cure it._ "

Star shuddered.

* * *

_The short explanation is that what we believe a Doom Curse to be has changed—a lot—in the duration of our research._

_At first, we thought it was just some kind of extra-dimensional flu. Then we thought it was like a hundred different diseases that we just weren't distinguishing between. Then we realized that all the differences in symptoms weren't a result of different diseases, but a result of different victims having different psychological and physical reactions to a single disease. Then we thought it was possession by the Artificers (see the section on Artificers for details as to why we thought that was plausible), and now, having arrived at my imminent shutdown of this whole research, we're leaving it off having possibly less idea of what it is than when we started._

_I say this now because some of the following information might be contradictory. I've tried to make edits and adjustments where appropriate, but even at the height of our understanding, there was a lot about the Doom Curse that behaved in what appeared to us as completely contradictory terms._

_So. The Doom Curse. Afflicted by an Artificer in an act of self-destruction, it is, in the most clinical terms, an affliction of the mind, and of fate itself, placed on its victims._

_What caught us off-guard about the Doom Curse initially was the fact that the victims spend as much as a whole month without any apparent symptoms. This time period ranged rather dramatically: some victims exhibited symptoms within only a few days, others went symptom-free until shortly before the end. We don't have a conclusive reasoning for this disparity, but we have a working hypothesis._

_The Doom Curse's first act is to feed on the negative emotions of the victim, and regurgitate them in the form of hallucinations and paranoia. Night Terrors are the most common early symptoms, brought on by the sleeping mind being particularly defenseless against the mental attacks._

_In short, the more a victim fears, the more they distrust, the more they lie, the more they hate... The more severe the symptoms. The Night Terrors will present themselves by piggybacking on the victim's deepest insecurities and fears and configure themselves to confront the victim with these vices as often as possible._

_Or, at least, that's what it usually does. What was most... troubling, however... was how many of these Night Terrors instead contained imagery of..."_

* * *

That was where the torn pages began. Star looked at the next visible page, which was quite obviously dozens of pages away in the original, undamaged version of this section.

* * *

" _But._

_The Doom Curse's final stage only affects one of the victims, chosen at the time the curse is applied. If there's only one victim, then they are obviously chosen, and they become fated to die, but if there are multiple victims, then only one of the victims is fated to die, and the others are able to live (though that doesn't always mean they do, given everything else). At the moment the targeted victim dies, the curse begins to lift, and within a week, the other victims return to normal, gradually losing the sensory corruption, until psychologically, they are returned to the state they were in before the curse was applied (though traumatized by the events they experienced)._

_This is where things got really ugly for my research team, at least from my perspective (naturally, I imagine the actual afflicted would have disagreed with my assessment of this being the 'worst' part). As I wrote originally, this is a curse of Fate. Specifically, on the way that Fate, as a law of the universe, intersects with Space-Time. So what happens is that Fate begins to warp reality around the afflicted, as their death-date draws nearer. Rivals who had never shown a disposition towards violence (or at least had chosen to abhor murder in any form) before would be 'suddenly motivated' to kill the afflicted. Violent Acts of Nature would become common in their presence._

_The final experiment we conducted was with the last victim who was still alive. We decided to do literally everything possible to keep her alive. My team fought off hordes of both Mewmans and Monsters who sought to utterly destroy her. She had a heart attack, and we had to employ some extremely powerful magic to heal her damaged organ. Then, it got silent. We thought we had finally beaten it. At that moment, reality itself began to rend itself, and the victim was bifurcated many times over, on the spot. The rending was not limited solely to the local space the victim inhabited, and many of my team members in close proximity to the victim suffered similar fates, with only a few within range of the victim surviving more than a few seconds._

_When the victim was well and truly dead, the fabric of space-time repaired itself, and we were safe. The few of us that survived, at least._

_In my mind, this doesn't seem like that difficult of a curse to cure: One would only need to find a way to unravel the curving of Fate around the victim._

_But the problem, obviously, is that we have no idea how to do that. Magic that alters Fate itself is said to be impossible, and the few magicks I've seen which claim to do exactly that are merely presenting a facsimile of the intended effect._

_Still... I've had my fill of this research, and the second thing I'll be doing, after I hide this book, is making sure that everyone, including myself, loses their memories. Right now, there are two artificers left. I'd love to hunt them down, which would finally repair the Iris, and finally fix my mistake, but they've gotten good at hiding, and they can't leave anyways. And since knowledge of this stuff is going to include the Iris anyways, I don't think I or anyone else is going to benefit much from repairing it. Even if the Artificers get out, at worst, they'll probably only be able to kill a few more people. That sucks, but if it means I don't have to spend the next decade hunting in that cave, I'll take it. My ledger is already stained with blood; a few more don't mean much against that."_

* * *

Star suddenly realized that she was at the end of the book.


	12. BREAKING THE GOOD NEWS

The food still tasted metallic.

Neither Star nor Marco said anything about it as they ate dinner with Marco's parents, but they both could tell, and a brief glance at Marco allowed Star and him to both know that the other person knew.

And, it was worse than it was in the morning. Now, it was overpowering the taste of the food.

Star's immediate guess was that a detailed description of whatever was happening with their taste buds was buried in the section of the book that had been ripped out.

"How was your trip to the library, kids?" Angie asked, smiling at the two of them.

"Boring." Star said quickly, before Marco could respond. "As you'd expect a library to be."

Marco grimaced, trying to smile while dealing with the unappetizing food.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Star leaned back, thinking about everything she'd read in the book. After she'd gotten to the end of the (truncated) section on the Doom Curse, she had started again from the beginning of the book. There were almost a thousand pages, but many of them were handwritten in a large-sized decently-legible handwriting, so it was less to read through than the size might have otherwise implied. Still, she was several hundred pages out from reaching the Doom Curse section again, and she already knew she'd have to make a few more passes through the book.

The Artificers and the experiments performed with/on them easily made up the bulk of the book. Even sections which weren't supposed to be about them touched on them in some way.

There were also many references to something called the "Iris Experiment". What was the Iris Experiment? Star didn't know. The section that was supposed to be about it was removed entirely, leaving nothing behind, not even the customary note handwaving why it was removed.

Star did, however, pick up on some context clues that led her to suspect what the Iris experiment might have been about.

The book was vague on the subject, but the way that Eclipsa talked about the Artificers implied that they weren't always... Like that. Their hideous monstrous forms. That, as a consequence of the Iris Experiment, they were transformed. Eclipsa also talked about how they supposedly "deserved" what was happening to them, and how she regretted not killing them off herself.

From this, Star had a mental image in her head: that the Artificers are—or at least used to be—Mewmans. And based on the way Eclipsa talked about them, they may have been condemned criminals, or worse.

There was, of course, no documented claim to support her theory. But regardless, the Iris Experiment, whatever it was, was some kind of grand venture on the part of Eclipsa and her research team, and the Artificers had been used as sacrificial pawns in this venture. Or possibly as guinea pigs. Or possibly as cannon fodder. Regardless, the experiment went badly, and the Artificers were created as a result.

So what was the Iris experiment? She was going to ask the mirror to perform a speculation once she had fully read everything in the book. The mirror couldn't read the book, but it should still be able to use her memories of reading the book. Hopefully: Star was worried that she'd have the same problem as when she'd asked the mirror to speculate on the Artificer they saw back in the cave.

One thing definitely troubled her though: in the entire book, there was no mention of the creatures they'd encountered in the Archives. If they really were tied up with the Doom Curse... Well, it was yet another reason Star cursed the fact that Eclipsa had chosen to remove that stuff.

In some respects, that was the immediate concern. Star's working hypothesis was that the collective fear she and Marco had been feeling in the Archives had... "spawned" them there. That was probably the worst case scenario, because if it's true, then she and Marco aren't really safe anywhere.

But at the same time, it seemed like the sort of thing that would have come up in the notes. If nothing else, why would Eclipsa remove information about creatures being spawned near the victims?

Star sat forwards in her chair.

This morning, when she woke up, she didn't have a lead on how to save Marco.

Now, she had hundreds.

And two months to solve the riddle.

"I think so," Star said, in-between bites of food.

* * *

"So," Star continued, "the short version is that we've been cursed."

Star was now sitting in Marco's room, at the foot of his bed. It was getting close to evening at this point, and Marco was laying on top of the covers of his bed, while Star had the Book and the Mirror sitting on her lap.

Marco raised on his hand so he could look at it. "And, that creature... An Artificer, is what it's called?"

Star nodded.

"That was the thing that cursed us?"

"Yes. The good news is that in doing so, it killed itself. But the curse remains."

Marco sighed. "So what's going to happen?"

Star began to open the book to the back, where the section on the Doom Curse was kept. "I don't know. The section which was supposed to have all the details got ripped out." She showed the ripped pages to Marco, making sure to show the page before the rip more prominently than the page after the rip. She still wasn't sure how to broach the subject of his imminent death, and didn't want to bring it up yet.

Marco closed his eyes.

"The book talks about the nightmares. It says that they're usually based on things that we're already fearing, but there's a cutoff paragraph suggesting that might not be true for all of them."

Marco sat up suddenly. "In what way?"

"Uh." Star flipped to the page. " _The Night Terrors will present themselves by piggybacking on the victim's deepest insecurities and fears and configure themselves to confront the victim with these vices as often as possible._ _Or, at least, that's what it usually does. What was most troubling, however, was how many of these Night Terrors instead contained imagery of_ —And that's the part where it cuts off."

Marco had a thoughtful expression on his face. "One of my dreams..." He stopped and looked away. "Never mind. Now that we know it's part of this curse, there's not really anything else I need to say about it."

This wasn't the first time Marco had expressed a concern for this, but Star didn't press the issue. She, too, was keeping secrets, and if his own secret was anything like the secret she was keeping, she understood why he didn't want to talk about it.

"So what do we do now? We need to cure it, right? Does it say what happens if we don't cure it?"

Star bit her lip. "Things will get a lot worse. I don't know how," she lied, "but they will. I haven't read the entire book yet, but the section of the Doom Curse has a note saying they never figured out how to cure it. I'm going to do a second pass over the book, this time reading from the start. I'm going to see if I can spot anything they missed."

"Okay."

Star saw his expression change. She wasn't quite sure how to read it, but it made her uncomfortable. She stood up and walked to the door.

"Star?"

Star turned around. She was reminded of the previous night, where they'd had a similar conversation.

"We're going to die, aren't we?"

* * *

Star's blood froze.

Marco was facing away from her, laying on his bed. "Answer me."

Star considered lying to him further. But this was too direct. She wasn't that good of a liar, and the fact that he was starting to suspect this meant there wasn't going to be a better time to say it. Plus, she now knew how to read his previous expression: he noticed she was lying. If she kept it up, he'd be able to tell.

Star held out the mirror. "Show me the odds that Marco will die in two months."

Marco rolled over to look at the mirror, which was now showing the critical 0.9999 probability to him.

He scowled, and Star winced looking at huh. "Two months, huh?" He looked at her with a dark expression on his face. "So when did _you_ find out?"

Star retracted the mirror. "Last night. When you heard me scream. I wasn't having a nightmare. I had found out that you were going to die."

Marco's eyes widened. "But... You...?"

"The mirror says I have a 3.5% chance of dying at the same time as you, but that otherwise, I'm probably going to live. And the book says that the curse, when applied to multiple people, only dooms one of them to die."

Marco suddenly stood up, and Star flinched, not sure how he was going to react. He slammed his fist into his bedroom wall.

Star looked in horror at his hand. He'd punched pretty hard, and the wall hadn't budged. "Marco... Your hand..."

Marco shook out his hand. "You didn't tell me, because you thought you were going to fix it on your own, without even having to tell me." He turned to her, his expression softening. "How did you know to ask about that book? To the mirror?"

"I didn't. The mirror can't say anything about the Artificers or anything related to this curse, but when I asked it to speculate, it noticed that this book had corrupted data like you had, and I guess I have too, and the Speculation connected the two and decided it was important." She looked at the floor. "I'm sorry I lied."

There was silence for a brief moment, before she suddenly felt Marco's arms around her, hugging her.

"Marco. I...!" Star wanted to hug him back, but she also knew that half of the reason why was the wrong reason.

"You've looked haunted all day, and now I understand why."

Star laid a hand on his upper back and began to rub it. He shivered violently suddenly. "Marco?"

The only noise he made in response was a tortured sob. Star now understood that he was crying.

"Y-you could've just kept lying, Star."

Star stared at the top of his head. "You knew I was lying. What good would it have done?"

"I only suspected... If you'd have just rebuffed me, I..."

The rest of what he said was intelligible through his sobs. They held each other for several minutes. Eventually, Marco broke away from the hug.

"Are you going to tell Jackie?" Star asked.

Marco looked at his phone. "I don't know. I don't—I'm going to die in two months! How do I even begin to deal with that myself, much less how do I explain that to anyone else?"

"You're not going to die."

Marco spun around, looking at her incredulously. "Star, you saw what the mirror said! I have a—"

"Ninety-nine-point-ninety-nine. I saw the number too. You know what that number isn't? One Hundred Percent."

"Okay, but..." Marco looked at the mirror. "How do we save my life?"

The mirror quickly rendered a large red 'X'.

"See, it's got nothing!"

Star looked at the mirror. "This thing is really smart. And I think we're going to need it to save your life. But it doesn't know everything. For starters, it doesn't know anything about the Artificers or the Curse, or anything about what Eclipsa did. And because of that, if there's a path that saves you, it probably doesn't know anything about it."

Marco looked at Star cautiously. "That kind of sounds like you're ignoring what it's saying and substituting in your own interpretation."

"I am. That's how the mirror—Mirror! Is it wrong for me to make subjective interpretations of your objective truths?"

"THAT QUESTION INVOLVES MAKING A JUDGMENT OF ETHICS, MORALITY, AND CULTURAL ASSESSMENT, AND AS SUCH, THIS DEVICE CANNOT ANSWER THAT QUESTION WITHOUT PERFORMING A SPECULATION."

"Speculate."

The mirror answered rather quickly. "SPECULATION: THOUGH IT'S BAD PRACTICE TO DISREGARD THE OBJECTIVITY OF THIS DEVICE, THE FACT THAT IT HAS SIGNIFICANT DATA THAT CANNOT BE INTERPRETED OR ANALYZED DOES SUGGEST THAT, FOR ANY MATTER THAT INVOLVES THE USE OF THAT DATA, A HEALTHY DEGREE OF SKEPTICISM IS WARRANTED." Consensus: 1.0000, Confidence: 1.0000.

Marco stared at the extra numbers that had popped up below the main panel. "Huh."

Star looked at Marco defiantly. "Marco, you and I are at war with Fate itself. At least, that's how Eclipsa described it in the book. I have no idea how to fight it, but I'm going to. I will save you."

Marco's eyes widened.

Then, eventually, a small smile formed on his face. "Okay."

Star suddenly got anxious. "Having said that... This is twice now you've refused to talk about it, but since we're divulging secrets now, and given that I need as much information about this curse as possible, I need to know... What your dream was about."

Marco's eyes remained widened, but now they betrayed discomfort, and a fair amount of disgust. "I... There's no possible way it could help you to know."

Star averted her gaze. "I won't force you to tell me. I've been keeping secrets too, and it's not fair for me to demand you tell me when I refused to tell you things. But," she said, tapping the book, "I led you into that cave, we were both attacked by the Artificer, but only you were doomed to die. We've crossed a threshold, and beyond that threshold, 'fairness' doesn't really exist. And I know that, because if fairness did exist," she said, pointing at herself, "I'd be the one dying right now, and you'd be free to live a happy life with Jackie."

Marco gave a weird look at Star when she said that. "That's not..." he shook his head. "My nightmare... Was about you trying to assault me."

His words hung in the air, and Star felt like they were ringing slightly. She twisted her head, trying to make sure she heard him correctly.

"Assault you... Like... I was trying to..."

Marco's face scrunched up in disgust, which mirrored Star's own face.

"Oh my god."

There was another 20 seconds where neither of them spoke.

Star spoke first: "Was... I don't even know how to ask this question, even forming the words makes me feel rotten, but: what exactly did I do, in your nightmare?"

Marco slumped onto his bed. "You were, um, doing your Mewberty thing. Like what happened at school back then. Only, you singled me out, you bound me up using that, uh, webbing you do, stripped me down, and then..." He helplessly waved his hands.

"Yeah, I... I'm not going to make you describe the rest unless knowing becomes some kind of last resort." Star leaned against the wall.

"I think that's a good idea."

Star sighed, and then began whispering words that she had read in the book. " _What was most troubling, however, was how many of these Night Terrors instead contained imagery of..._ " Star looked at Marco. "The page was torn right at that spot, before Eclipsa described potential imagery in these nightmares. I... think we have our answer as to what she was about to describe."

Marco crossed his arms. "Why would she rip out information like that?"

"Well, I have to ponder it, but I think it's something we didn't need to know. Or at least she didn't think we needed to know. Think about it: if you're someone who isn't afflicted, all you really need to know is that the victim will have nightmares, and they'll be really bad. If you're afflicted, then you already know what kind of nightmares you're having, and finding that out doesn't change much. The details don't matter much."

Marco seemed like he was about to say something else, then changed his mind, before saying, "What kind of nightmares have you been having?"

Star locked eyes with him. "The first dream I had, you crawled into bed with me, and then stabbed me with a large knife, before trying to gouge my eyes out. The second, my father eviscerated my mother, with a manic grin on his face, chanting my name, before coming after me."

Marco looked plenty terrified, despite having suffered through his own nightmares. "Wow."

"There is a common thread, you know," Star said to him. "People we—" Star almost said 'love', and caught herself last-instant: "—care about trying to hurt us. My nightmares haven't been as, uh, violating, as yours, but they're still designed to try to make me paranoid that the people around me want to hurt me. As they are doing for you."

Marco nodded.

Star walked towards the door. "I need to begin work on this immediately." She stopped in front of the door, and turned to face him. "Marco. I'm not saying right now, because I'm getting the impression you want to be left alone for the moment."

Marco nodded again.

"But this is going to be hard work, and when you're up to it, a research buddy might be a good plan."

He turned around a crawled under his covers. "I'll let you know."

Star frowned and turned away. "Try to have a good night, Marco. I know that's asking a lot."

"You too."


	13. A NEW VICTIM APPROACHES!

**~A Note from the Author~**

**I've had a few readers ask me what kind of music I'd recommend people listen to when reading this story.**

**My default suggestion is that you load up the Saya no Uta soundtrack and let it run on repeat for the duration of the story.**

**BUT.**

**I recognize that many of you probably don't have access to the Saya no Uta soundtrack (not least of which because many of you are probably under 18). So for any of you that don't have ready access to that soundtrack, I've come up with an alternative that should provide equivalent ambiance.**

**What you'll need to do is go to your parents garage and get their lawnmower. A Gas-Powered Lawnmower is ideal, but an electric will work in a pinch. Take the lawnmower, and carry it to your desk or bed. Turn it on, and prop it up sideways.**

**Now here's the important part: as you read this story, you need to lean up against the spinning blades, BUT you need to make sure that you don't lean up so closely that the blades eviscerate your face. After all, if you lose an ear or half your face, you won't appreciate the music, or this story. So an ideal distance from the blades is about 1 to 2 centimeters.**

**You can then proceed to read this story. Let me know if you have any feedback on which lawnmower models and brands achieve maximum ambiance.**

**And, as long as I'm here: thank you for reading! I love everyone who reads this story~!**

* * *

 

Red.

That was the first thing Star noticed when she opened her eyes after a sleepless night.

It wasn't a strong effect. It was certainly manageable. But it wasn't limited to the outside anymore.

There was also a dull noise in her head. There wasn't any other way to describe it: it was just noise. Somewhere between a dull, high-pitched ringing in the back of her head and the sound of a TV producing static.

Star stood up, feeling dehydrated and sick. She wandered hazily to the bathroom, walked up to the sink, and tried to drink the water. It had a bitter taste, and felt fuzzy on her tongue, but she forced herself to drink it down.

The previous night's leads hadn't borne fruit, but that didn't come as a surprise to Star. All she had managed to do before going to bed was read the entire book, cover to cover, just in case any of the pages removed from the book had simply been placed somewhere else. They weren't.

Her theory about the origin of the Artificers was strengthened, but there still wasn't much to go on there, with respect to actually saving Marco. Deep down, she was pretty sure learning more about the Artificers would reveal the next clue, but she now had no idea what form that clue would take.

Star hesitated, then walked to the door connecting the bathroom to Marco's room. She knocked. "Marco."

"Come in."

Star opened the door, and immediately noticed a very peculiar phenomenon: though his room had the same red tint that everything had, the immediate vicinity of Marco was not experiencing any notable color distortion. He, and the 40cm or so surrounding him, looked perfectly normal.

Marco turned to face her, a drained, listless look on his face, but he suddenly perked up when his eyes trained themselves on her. "Hi Star, how... Huh?"

Star blinked. She walked around him , trying to observe how the effect changed (or rather, didn't) as she viewed him from different angles. Marco was following her around the room with his eyes.

Star walked up to him, and the ringing in her head subsided. "Are you noticing it too?"

Marco looked around the room. "I noticed that the curse is getting worse... But when I look at you, you still look normal."

"Me too."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "You think maybe the curse cancels out when we look at each other because we're both affected? Like some kind of double-negative effect?"

Star shrugged. "That's as good a theory as any."

Marco's expression darkened. "That begs a question though... If we look normal to each other... How do we look to other people?"

"We need a control." Star leaned out the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Diaz? Could you come upstairs to Marco's room for a moment?"

Angie was only several meters away from the door, and arrived first. "Something the matter, Star?"

Star froze when she saw Angie's face. It was unmistakably her, but all the proportions seemed off. Her eyes were less symmetrical than usual. Her nose appeared crooked in a way that defied normal human anatomy. Star immediately looked away so that it wouldn't appear like she was staring, and pointed around the room. "Does anything look unusual about us, or about this room?"

Angie wrinkled her face in response to this question. She studied Star, then Marco, then the room. "Well, as usual, Marco is leaving his dirty clothes out."

Marco, with an embarassed look on his face, grabbed the dirty shirt and underwear sitting on his chair and moved it to the laundry hamper. "What about now," he asked, making the same gesture Star had made.

Angie looked around as Raphael approached her from behind. "I don't see anything unusual. Did you cast some kind of spell on the room?"

Star evasively answered, "sort of. It's kind of complicated to explain. The spell is supposed to change how the room looks. We wanted to see if you can see any of its effects for yourselves."

Angie and Raphael looked around the room, then at each other, then shook their heads. "Everything looks fine to me," Raphael responded.

"Us too?"

Angie shrugged. "You look tired."

Star forced a smile. "Alright, I guess it isn't working. Thanks for your time."

"Are you having problems with your wand again?" Angie asked.

Star averted her gaze. "I guess you could say that."

"Alright. Just make sure you don't make a mess of the house again!" They both smiled and left to go back downstairs.

Once they were both out of earshot, Star slumped against the door. "It's getting worse. Even the water tastes bad now."

Marco nodded gravely. "I had a lot of time to think about my mortality."

Star sucked in a breath, remembering what the mirror had said about his ability to cope with the revelation. "And?"

He turned away. "Just that it would be really nice to die not dealing with this curse."

Star looked at the floor. "Well, that's the plan: making sure you don't have to die until you're an angry old man."

Marco snorted. He then stood up and began to grab some clothes to change into. "Do you have a plan beyond that? No offense."

Star crossed her arms. "Well, I'm still trying to learn as much as possible about the Artificers. My reasoning is that if we learn how they cast the spell, or whatever it is they do that casts the curse, we'll learn something about how to undo it."

Marco was now carrying his clothes to the bathroom. "What input does the mirror have?"

"Not much. I ran a couple of tests, and basically, any information related to the Artificers, or this curse, it can't read or interpret. I've been making heavy use of the Speculation mode to try to organize my thoughts and keep me focused on what's important, but it doesn't have any leads it thinks are particularly outstanding at the moment."

"Well, what leads does it think are non-outstanding?"

"It wants me to dig further specifically into the creatures that attacked us in the Archives. Since the book doesn't mention them, and the Mirror can't even detect that they were there, the Speculation thinks that I'm missing something critical related to them. But it also thinks that that represents more of an intellectual curiosity than anything that will help cure you."

Marco stopped in front of the door. "The mirror can't even detect them?"

Star shrugged. "Only the speculation mode could even see the book. I still think the creatures had more to do with us than the Archives, but I'm also starting to think it was a little of both."

Marco nodded. "Alright, I'm getting a shower."

Star took the hallway back to her room to wait for him to finish.

* * *

 

School was starting to get unbearable.

Everything Star looked at had an irritating red-orange glow to it. Everything she touched felt numb, as though her hand had fallen asleep. There was a dull ringing in her ears. Everything tasted like metal. And now, a bleachy, vinegar-like smell was present everywhere she went. She felt dizzy all the time, and when she and Marco finally sat down for lunch, another irritant presented itself: Jackie.

Well. That wasn't fair.

Jackie wasn't irritating. Or at least, the way in which Jackie was irritating wasn't her fault. But to Star, who was already dealing with everything else, she didn't have the patience to deal with her now.

Which was bad, because shortly after Marco had sat down to eat, he'd excused himself to use the restroom.

Star choked down a delicious sandwich that tasted awful to her, and looked at Jackie, who had a haunted look on her face.

"Did Marco talk to you?"

Jackie nodded.

Star sighed and tried to take another bite.

"I kind of regret teasing you when we were talking over the weekend." Jackie finally said

"Huh?"

"At the time, I thought you were just stressed out from the month you lost. If I had known that Marco was..." She shook her head, then smiled sadly. "It's ironic. Marco compliments me a lot about how cool I am. But since he and I started dating, all I've done is put my foot in my mouth, saying insensitive, hurtful things that I shouldn't. He thinks I'm a much better person than I am."

"What do you mean?"

Jackie's eyes widened. "Ah. I, uh..." She scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Without getting into the ugly details, I was having kind of an episode, a few weeks ago, while you and Marco were gone. My parents are... Anyways, in my anger, I texted some really awful things to Marco. I... I don't even know if I meant any of it. I want to say I didn't, but if I didn't, then why did I write it all, you know?"

Star perked up. "What kind of stuff?"

"Stuff that... Noone should ever think, much less say. Awful, nasty, hurtful stuff. I feel gross even thinking about it."

Star made a grunt and went back to eating.

"Marco is actually pretty amazing, you know that?"

_I'm aware._

"When I told him what I'd texted to him, he didn't even ask to see them. He offered to delete them off his phone, to make it like I'd never sent him anything. What other person would offer something like that?" Jackie looked in the direction where Marco had gone. "I really don't deserve him."

"No, you probably don't."

It took Star a full minute to realize what she had absently said to Jackie, and she suddenly looked up at her, to see that Jackie had an offended and somewhat scandalized look on her face.

"That's a really mean thing to say, Star."

"You're the one who said it first."

Star suddenly became aware of a person sitting next to her, and it wasn't Marco. Janna had what could charitably be described as an 'entertained' look on her face. "Hey Star. Hey Jackie."

Jackie looked put off. "Hey... Janna."

Star was more pleased to see her. "Hi!"

Janna surveyed the two of them. "You guys look really serious."

Star furrowed her brow slightly. She'd seen Janna last week, and though she hadn't really interacted with her, Janna seemed to somehow have a pretty good sense of what was going on. So Star couldn't help but feel like Janna ought to have known better than to interject herself. "Well, we're—"

Janna suddenly faced Star head-on. "Star. Would you come with me? There's something I need to show you."

Star glanced at Jackie, who looked discontent, and nodded her head at Janna. "Alright." Star grabbed her lunch.

On their way out of the lunch room, Star dumped the rest of her lunch in a garbage bag.


	14. SO VERY, VERY DIRTY

"I was listening to your conversation. I thought it might be good to separate you two for awhile."

Star got defensive. "Why?"

Janna gave her a meaningful look. "Come on, Butterfly. I think you know why."

Star sighed.

"Plus, given what you and Marco are dealing with, I actually do have some stuff to show you."

" _You_?" Star said, incredulously. "No offense, Janna, but I very much doubt your occult nerd stuff can help me."

Janna smiled mischievously. "You never know. Although..." She leaned up close to Star. "I'm not sure I actually want to help you. After all, you and Marco never invited me over to play with that mirror. Doesn't seem fair."

Star grimaced. "If you want to try out the mirror, I've got a bunch more reading I need to do tonight, iterating through the sections I've already read. I can't really use the mirror while I'm doing that, so..."

Janna shook her head. "I'm just messing with you, buddy." She leaned back and stood upright. "I don't really want to use it. I'm content with all the things I already know, and I'd rather keep the future a mystery. I don't want spoilers," she said, winking.

"Then what...?"

"Helping people is its own reward. So let me ask you something: Do you know who L.C. Helcroft was?"

Star had heard the name before in their English class, as an offhand reference from Mrs. Skullnick. "Uhh, he's an Anti-Semetic guy who wrote horror stories back like a hundred years ago," she said, regurgitating exactly what her teacher had said.

Janna threw up her hands apologetically. "Okay, granted, his moral fiber leaves a lot to be desired. But he wrote about pan-dimensional cosmic horrors. The kinds of creatures that induce paranoia, madness, and insanity in the unwitting humans who encountered them. Sound familiar?"

Star sighed. "I guess, but Janna: you do realize that those stories are fiction, right? You're not about to tell me that he actually encountered the Artificers, on earth, are you?"

Star realized that Janna shouldn't have known what an 'Artificer' was, but Janna apparently didn't know she wasn't supposed to know that. "Relax. Helcroft wrote fiction. No one is about to try to dispute that. BUT," she said, excited, "we've always contended that his works were inspired by an actual experience he—or maybe someone he knew—had where they encountered something like that creature that attacked Marco and you."

Star raised an eyebrow. " _We_?"

"My book club."

"Ah. So wait, your basis for being able to help me is the _unsubstantiated_ guess that a horror author from a century ago _might_ have encountered a creature that shouldn't even be on Earth?"

"Pretty much."

"Janna... This doesn't seem like a productive lead."

Janna narrowed her eyes. "I mean, the alternative is you can go sit back, down at the lunch table, and feed your jealousy over Jackie's relationship with Marco. That seems like a MUCH healthier thing to do."

Star sighed. "You know she texted Marco a bunch of nasty messages, and he forgave her without even finding out what they were?"

Janna had a deadpan expression on her face. "Star, that was sarcasm. Dealing with your romantic bullcrap was not supposed to be the healthier option."

Star rolled her eyes, then noticed that Janna had a guilty look on her face.

"Having said that, though… I may or may not have helped her compose some of the stuff she wrote."

Star furrowed her brow. "Why?!"

Janna threw up her arms. "She seemed really stressed out! I didn't think she was actually going to send any of that crap! I was just trying to help her blow off steam."

"You helped her blow off steam by suggesting things for her to angrily text at Marco?"

"I figured it was a no-lose gamble. If you and Marco were dead, then, you know, no one was harmed. If you guys eloped, then you probably wouldn't give a crap about anything she wrote. And if you guys were in danger, it probably wouldn't have amounted to more than small potatoes once you were safe. And technically, that is what happened, right?"

Star folded her arms. Then, she reached into her backpack, and pulled out the mirror.

"You brought it with you to school?"

Star held it up. "What were the messages Jackie sent to Marco?"

The mirror began to shimmer, but before it finished, Janna covered up the panel with her hand.

Star yanked the mirror out of the way, but Janna maneuvered to cover it up again. "Janna, stop that!"

Janna had a very serious look on her face. "Look. I'm not going to _prevent_ you from reading those texts. But I already yelled at Jackie for the shit she said, and Marco chose to forgive her. So the only two people for whom those messages matter have dealt with the consequences and moved on. You choosing to read them is going to bring you no satisfaction, and will only bring more pain to the both of them. Now, if it were me, I'd go right ahead, because, you know, that's kind of my thing, and I pretty much always put my curiosity ahead of anyone else's feelings." Janna then narrowed her eyes. "But you, on the other hand, seem like a person with a conscience. You seem like the sort of person who might feel bad about that."

Star pondered this briefly. "If I found out my dad were beating my mom, finding out that he'd been yelled at and she'd forgiven him wouldn't make it okay for me to pretend everything is fine."

Janna continued to stare at her. "That's a false equivalency, Star, and you know that."

Star yanked the mirror away from Janna's hands and began to look at the panel.

* * *

XXXX-YY-04_112343: Hey, Marco. I haven't seen you at school today. Are you alright? Do you want me to come by afterwards with your homework? Let me know! XO

XXXX-YY-05_160207: Marco? If you get this text, please respond. Your parents are worried about you. I know you and Star go off on adventures sometimes, but you need to tell people where you're going before you leave. Especially me! It's not nice to leave me out of the loop! =(

XXXX-YY-07_190359: Alright. I know enough about you that I don't think you'd go silent like this on purpose. Wherever you and Star are, if you're getting these texts, just know that we all care about you, and I want you to be careful. Please come home safely. 3

XXXX-YY-12_095007: To whomever gets these messages, this phone belongs to a boy named Marco Diaz. He's very special to us. Please find him and bring him back to Earth. It might be a different dimension from yours, but I trust you'll find a way to bring him home safely. Please.

XXXX-YY-15_160052: A bunch of people at school are suggesting you and Star ran off with each other. I… Look, I know they're just rumors, and people are being jerks, but you'd at least tell me if you had, right? I can take it. You don't have to hide just because you're worried how I would act. Look, I do care about you, but if she's more important to you than me, I… Again, I could handle the rejection. I just don't like the silence.

XXXX-YY-15_160403: I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. Look, whatever situation you're in, the last thing I should be doing is insinuating that you would run off like that without at least giving me an explanation. I know you're not like that.

XXXX-YY-18_204836: You know, I've been thinking.

XXXX-YY-18_204859: You and Star have been in some really significant trouble before.

XXXX-YY-18_205003: And pretty much every single time, you've found a way out of it.

XXXX-YY-18_205105: On top of that, the Queen told me that if Star's wand had been captured, they would have known right away, since pretty much the entire universe would be going crazy if it had.

XXXX-YY-18_205146: So therefore, logically, it's not that likely that you and Star are dead, and you probably aren't captured, since otherwise it would make no sense that your parents haven't received a ransom note by now.

XXXX-YY-18_205324: So I have to conclude that both of you are alive, not incapacitated, and simply unable–or unwilling–to return home or deliver a message explaining any of this to us.

XXXX-YY-18_205546: So given all of that, I have to ask.

XXXX-YY-18_205932: Is Bug Pussy really that good?

XXXX-YY-18_210047: Like, is fucking the princess just so goddamn good that you've completely forgotten about anyone else?

XXXX-YY-18_210131: Or are you so entitled that, knowing I wanted to wait, you decided you might as well go after her?

XXXX-YY-18_210344: STOP PRETENDING YOU CAN'T READ THESE, MARCO!

XXXX-YY-18_210459: CRAWL OFF OF HER FUCKING TITS AND LOOK AT YOUR GODDAMN PHONE!

XXXX-YY-18_222322: Okay fine. Fuck you too.

XXXX-YY-19_060145: OH MY GOD. Marco. I'm so sorry.

XXXX-YY-19_060223: I'm so, so, so sorry.

XXXX-YY-19_060412: I don't even know what to say. I have no excuse. Everything I texted last night... All of it was horrible, and I wish I could take it back. I... I don't know if I meant it, but I definitely don't mean it now.

XXXX-YY-19_073427: God, I'm the fucking worst, aren't I? Here, you're off somewhere, possibly hurt or dead or worse, and I, sitting comfortably at home, take my panic attack out on you.

XXXX-YY-19_074210: Like, hypothetically, if you had run off with Star, and were just eloping... After how I've acted, I'd deserve it. I'd deserve if you dumped me and never talked to me again.

XXXX-YY-19_080053: Marco. I don't know what kind of situation you're in right now, but please. Just be alive. If you get these messages and decide you hate me, that's fine. I could live with you hating me. But please don't be dead. Please. That's all I want anymore.

* * *

Star was leaning against the wall. Janna stood beside her, her face turned away so she didn't have to see Star's expression.

Said expression had changed a lot over the course of reading the profane texts. At first, it had been anger borne of jealousy over how close they appeared to be. Then, it had transformed into a mixture of both protective instinct on Marco's behalf and proud, righteous vindication at seeing how awful Jackie really was. But by the end of it, Star just felt numb. Because there was something too familiar in the way Jackie's final texts came across.

Star lowered the mirror.

Janna tilted her head slightly. "So? Do you feel good about what you saw? Are you glad you snooped?" There was a bitter edge to her voice.

Star put the mirror back into her backpack.

"Well?!"

"I don't have anything to say," Star said.

"Really? Nothing."

"It's as you said," Star said dispassionately, "it's for Marco and Jackie to deal with, and I guess they already have."

The ringing was really annoying her right now.

Janna thrust herself away from the wall. "Fine. Do you still want to know about Helcroft?"

Star was looking in the direction of the lunchroom, where Jackie was probably still sitting.

"Hey!"

Star turned to Janna, her face expressionless. "What would learning about him do? How do we know he even encountered an Artificer?"

Janna sighed. "Well, we don't know for sure. At best, if he did encounter anything like that, it would have been when he was basically a toddler."

Star's face remained unreadable. "So he didn't encounter anything."

Janna scrunched her face. "How do you know that?"

"Because he wouldn't have survived to adulthood if he had. Especially not at that..." Star's voice trailed off.

The effort spent rereading Eclipsa's book had begun to pay off.

* * *

_One of my team members, [REDACTED], brought their kid into the field today. This was pretty obviously a terrible decision, but it did yield some useful data. The kid snuck off halfway through the testing, and we halted everything to try to locate them._

_Eventually, we did locate them._

_The Artificer had found them._

_And it did something we hadn't seen before. It didn't try to kill them._

_It was behaving plenty aggressively towards the kid, and appeared to be trying to lure the kid towards them, but it wasn't taking any action that had the potential to cause harm._

_Of course, we took no chances. The experiment was immediately canceled, the Artificer immediately killed and disposed of, the child returned to its parent, and [REDACTED] was laid off from the project._

_This is most definitely a subject of research we won't be pursuing any further, but we've noted our hypothesis: The Artificers behave unusually around children._

* * *

"... Or maybe he would have." Star said, regaining her focus.

Janna raised an eyebrow.

Star shook her head. "Still, at that age, what could he possibly remember? What could he have written down to document his encounter."

"Nothing." Janna said plainly. "But... We know which cave it was. If he really did encounter an Artificer in there, you'd be able to go there and learn more about it."

But to Janna's shock, Star crossed her arms in front of herself. "No. No more caves. Marco and I have already barely escaped death twice traveling underground. I'm not tempting fate a third time. Not while Fate is actively conspiring to kill Marco."

Janna threw up her arms. "Fine. I was just trying to help." She turned to walk away.

"Janna."

Janna stopped in place and looked over her shoulder at Star.

"I really do appreciate it." Star gave her a smile.

Janna looked at her for a few seconds, before breaking out in a smile herself. "Alright. Let me know if you change your mind."

"I will."


	15. SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD TIME

Star rubbed her forehead.

The ringing was a little louder than it was the day before.

Which had been a little louder than the day before.

Which had been a little louder than the day before.

Star had read and reread through Eclipsa's book several times now. Some of the information was starting to retain in her head.

She was still going to school: she needed to keep up appearances for the benefit of Moon's metaphorical eyes and ears, and ironically, listening to the boring teachers at school was giving her a respite from studying at home.

After sorting through everything, Star had narrowed things down greatly.

First up was the Iris Experiment. Based on the context clues in the book, it involved the use of Fate magic, in some form or another. Though it was classified as a failure, if Star managed to figure out why it failed, she might be able to use the same magic to save Marco.

Second was the Artificers themselves. They had to be casting some kind of Fate magic to place that curse on herself and Marco in the first place. So if she could replicate what they had done to her and Marco, she might be able to reverse it.

The third option was confessing what had happened to her mom and seeing if she knew anything. That seemed unlikely, and if she could find a way to explain things to her mom without having to admit directly what had happened, that would definitely be better.

Her wall mirror began to ring.

_Speak of the devil..._ Star thought to herself.

She stood up. It was harder to balance than usual.

She answered the mirror. "Hello?"

Moon appeared behind the glass, looking irate. "Star. Do you know why I'm calling you?"

Star remembered the mess she had left in the Archives. "Uhh..."

"'uhh' indeed, young lady! I just finished talking to the maintenance crew that was working in the Archives. They tell me that while the lights were off, you knocked over a bunch of bookshelves, and nearly crushed one of them under a pile of falling books!"

Star blinked, panic coursing through her. _Wait, there were **other people** down there?!_

Star tried to remember. The darkness in the Archives had been total, to the point where she couldn't see more than a few meters in front of herself. If there had been anyone else down there, she wouldn't have seen them, and she remembered too that something had been off with her hearing.

Wait.

_The Creatures!_

_I trapped them down there with those things!_

"I... How are they?" She asked, trying not to freak out.

Moon narrowed her eyes. "They're fine. One of them got a few bruises, but nothing a bit of magic won't fix. What were you doing down there?"

Fact #1. Moon didn't mention the Creatures. That meant the maintenance people didn't mention them either.

Fact #2. The maintenance people were mostly okay. Creatures like that would most certainly have killed them.

So, the conclusion: the creatures are most definitely part of the Doom Curse. They can only be seen or heard, or possibly even interacted with, by someone afflicted with the Doom Curse.

In fact, it would make sense: they probably don't even care about anyone not afflicted. They might not even have the ability to see unaffected people themselves.

Star sighed. "Basically, the light on my wand wasn't working as well as I thought, and Marco and I accidentally collided with a bookshelf, knocking everything over. We couldn't see anything, so we just ran to the elevator, hoping no one would notice."

"Uh huh. Well we did notice."

"I'm sorry."

Moon's expression softened. "Fortunately, I've already cleaned everything up. But Star, please tell me when something like that happens. Someone could have been hurt."

"I know."

"Alright. That's all for now, let me know if anything else comes up."

"Uhh, there is one thing."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Star tried to carefully word her question. "Do you know anything about casting Fate Magic?"

Moon looked perplexed. "Fate Magic. Like... Magic to change a person's destiny? Magic to predict or change the future? I have a few fortune telling spells I've acquainted myself with, but I've never been particularly convinced that they actually work. I could send you a transcription of the spells."

"No, that's fine. I'll try to work it out."

"One of your spells not working?"

"Basically."

Moon shrugged. "Alright. Call me if you need anything."

The wall mirror went blank.

"I guess we can scratch off the possibility of getting help from Mom. Not that it's particularly shocking."

Star pondered the revelation about the creatures. On one hand, it now meant that they didn't need to worry about their friends and family being endangered by them. So if they ever encountered one again, the only two people they'd have to look out for are themselves.

But if Star and Marco are the only ones that can even see or interact with them, it means that they can't get help from anyone else if they see one of those things. That's a problem in its own right.

Star walked back to her bed and picked up the Mirror of Sight. "Alright. The Iris Experiment. What can you tell me about it?"

The Mirror shimmered briefly before responding with a large red 'X'.

Star sighed and clasped her forehead. "Can you... find... anyone who ever once said the words 'Iris Experiment', in Eclipsa's time?"

"NO."

Star stood up and paced the room. "Alright." She tried to remember when Eclipsa became Queen of Mewnie, then worked backwards.

Eclipsa couldn't have been too young when these experiments were going on. The way she talks in the book struck Star like the way an adult would talk, so at the very least, Eclipsa would have had to have been at least 16, and probably older.

Wait. There was an easier solution, wasn't there?

The Mirror can't read anything having to do with the Artificers. But presumably it can read anything else.

Star looked at the mirror. "In the lifespan of Eclipsa, in Eclipsa's vicinity, are there any ranges of time which you cannot read, due to corrupted data, and if so, what are those ranges of time?"

The mirror shimmered for a full seven minutes at this request. "SIX MONTHS AFTER ECLIPSA'S SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY, THERE IS A SPAN OF TIME, LASTING NINETEEN MONTHS, DURING WHICH FREQUENT AND PERIODIC CORRUPTED DATA MAKES READING INFORMATION ABOUT HER ACTIVITIES IMPOSSIBLE. THE GENERAL VICINITY OF THIS TIMESPAN IS ALSO CORRUPTED, THOUGH IT CAN BE FILTERED TO BE PRESENTABLE WITH THE CAVEAT THAT THE CORRUPTION WILL PREVENT SOME DATA FROM BEING ACCESSIBLE."

That was better than Star thought she was going to get from the mirror. "Alright. Show me what Eclipsa was doing, starting with the moment the corruption begins to be detectable."

The mirror shimmered, and then rendered Eclipsa in the Mewnie throne room, standing before the then-queen of Mewnie, her mother. Eclipsa appeared to be yelling at her, though there was no sound.

"Is there a better way to view this?"

"THIS DEVICE CAN PROJECT THE SCENE INTO YOUR MIND-SPACE, ENABLING YOU TO VIEW THE SCENE FROM ANY VANTAGE POINT YOU CHOOSE."

"Alright, let's do that."

The next second, she was standing in the Mewnie Throne room, while Eclipsa stood frozen, an angry look on her face, in front of her mother, whose look was more demure, and possibly even... Smug?

"Alright, let's go."

The scene resumed, and Eclipsa continued to wordlessly argue with her mother. Star looked around the room, and noticed that at the entrance to the throne room, something very strange was happening.

Two guards stood at attention. Or at least, Star presumed that they were two guards: one of them was entirely obscured by a blotchy, red color that hurt her eyes to look at. Star immediately deduced that this was the effect of the corruption mentioned by the Mirror.

Star looked back at Eclipsa. "Hey, silly question, but is it possible to get sound on this?"

Suddenly, a deafening Howling/Screeching noise filled Star's head, and she quickly screamed "Stop, Stop!"

The audio stopped.

She saw words appear in front of her: "THIS DEVICE HAS IDENTIFIED THAT THE AUDIO DATA IS SUFFERING FROM SIMILAR CORRUPTION."

"Of course it is." Star mused. "Can we rewind like 10 minutes, at least figure out what they're talking about?"

The scene flashed briefly before reappearing. Eclipsa wasn't in the room. The queen was busy speaking to someone on her wall mirror. At a glance, they looked like a Mewnie politician.

Star turned around, and noticed that she had mistaken the person covered up: only one of the two men were a guard. The other she couldn't identify, but he was wearing the kingdom colors on a long, flowing robe, and was chatting with the guard.

Star walked up to them, and asked the mirror to turn the audio back on. The sound levels were normal now, and as Star got closer, she saw that the guard was a very young man ( _was he even 18?_ ) and the man in the robe was much older. Not quite elderly, but she could tell he was well past his prime.

"Look, you just need to relax. You've got your whole life ahead of you to be miserable and stuck-up."

The boy grinned sheepishly. "I know, but I'm supposed to be guarding the queen!"

"And the kingdom thanks you for it. Look, I'm not saying _right this second_ , obviously your duties as a guard are paramount. But... Listen. I know of a wonderful Tropical Paradise. My men and I like to go there on weekends. Good food, lots of sun... And hey! Lots of beautiful, young sexy girls."

The guard blushed at this suggestion.

The man in the robe began ribbing him with his elbow. "See, I knew you'd be interested! Tell you what: this weekend, if you want to join us, meet us outside the alchemy lab. Since it's your first time, we'll even cover your expenses."

"I don't know. I promised my girlfriend we'd hang out with her friends this weekend."

"Bring her along!" The robed man said, grinning from ear to ear. "Bring her friends too! The more the merrier!"

"Well..."

There were footsteps behind them, and seconds later, Princess Eclipsa emerged from the hallway.

Star noted that Eclipsa didn't look angry... yet. She did, however, have a rather

The guard immediately stood at attention and bowed before Eclipsa. "Your highness."

Eclipsa barely looked at him. "I'm here to speak to my mother."

"Uhh, she said she wasn't to be disturbed right now."

Eclipsa strode past him. "I wasn't asking permission. She needs to hear this now."

Star kept up pace with Eclipsa. The queen turned her head to see Eclipsa approaching her, and her eyes narrowed. She turned to the mirror and said, "Would it be alright if I called you back later? My daughter wants something."

The mirror went blank.

The queen turned around entirely. "What is it you want, Eclipsa?"

"Three."

The queen had a dispassionate look on her face. She shifted her shoulders, and said, with barely any inflection, "what?"

"There are now three kids that I've spoken to, who've all told me the same thing."

The Queen sighed. "Eclipsa, dear, I've told you already. We're working on it."

Star suddenly addressed the mirror: "I need a notification when the corruption begins, but I also need you to cut the audio when that happens. I don't want to hurt my ears."

The response appeared in front of her. "NOTED."

The Queen continued, "I've tasked the army with sweeping through the countryside, rounding up any and all Monsters that they find, and identifying the monster responsible. It won't be long before they're caught."

Eclipsa's eye twitched. "It's. Not. A Monster."

The Queen raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" This, too, she said with little inflection, as though she didn't really mean it as a question.

"The person responsible isn't a Monster. You're not going to find anything."

"Eclipsa, I don't want to hear you trying to preach sympathy for the Monsters again."

Eclipsa sighed. "I'm not about to try to defend their character to you. What I'm telling you is that they aren't responsible. All of the kids have corroborated that it was a Mewman."

The Queen looked irritated. "Eclipsa! You know they have shapeshifting abilities!"

"No, they don't! At least most of them don't!"

"Illusion abilities, whatever. The point is, there's no _real_ evidence that the culprit is a Mewman."

"You don't—"

"Eclipsa. All it takes is a single bad Monster. Are you seriously trying to tell me that there aren't any bad Monsters out there?"

Eclipsa stumbled, not sure what to say in response. "That's not the point. There's bad Mewmans too, you know!"

The Queen smirked. "So what? You automatically assume a Mewman must be the culprit, but you're just going to give every single Monster a pass?"

"That's not what I'm saying!" Eclipsa had now raised up her arms.

"Then what are you saying?"

"I..." Eclipsa composed herself. "Setting aside the fact that all the kids described the same Mewman, there's a bigger problem. I think it's someone from within the Castle."

The Queen's smirk vanished and her eyes narrowed. "Really? So not only are you trying to defend the Monsters, you are actually about to accuse someone living behind these walls?"

"The third kid said it happened during the 48-hour lockdown! No one got in or out, and no Monsters were detected within the Castle during that time! So unless one of the peasants snuck in before the lockdown, it has to be someone who resides in the Castle."

Suddenly, Marco appeared, opposite Star, holding a plate of Nachos. "Uhh, Star? What are you doing?"

Star yelled at the mirror, "Pause!"

Marco blinked as the scene froze in place. "What?"

"Hey, can we bring Marco in on this?"

"Bring me in on—whoa!" Marco almost lost balance, and a few nachos fell to the floor. He looked around. "What is going on here?!"

"I'm trying to figure out what the Iris Experiment was, and in order to do that, I need to dig into what Eclipsa was doing before she wrote that book. If it's okay with you, I'd like you to see this. I did say I needed a research buddy, after all."

Marco blinked several times, then tried to walk towards Star, before hitting his knee on Star's desk, which was invisible to him. "Ow!"

Star looked upwards. "Hang on, let us both out for a second."

The scene vanished and they were back in Star's room.

Star grabbed her wand and magicked the few Nachos that fell into the trash, then sat down on her bed. "Come on," she said, tapping next to her for Marco to sit down. After Marco was sitting, Star addressed the mirror again, and said, "Okay, bring up the scene again."

The scene returned, with Eclipsa and the Queen in mid-argument, still frozen.

Star turned to Marco. "Hey, are those any good?"

Marco looked at the Nachos. "Oh. Uh, well, they still taste funny, but not nearly as bad as other food."

Star took a bite. She noticed right away that Marco had undersold them: in fact, they tasted perfectly fine. "These taste great!"

Marco looked surprised. "Really?" He took a bite himself. "Hmm. They still taste funny to me."

Star pondered this briefly. "Maybe it's because you made them."

"Huh?"

"Like, when we're in each other's presence, the effects of the curse seem mitigated, right? I wonder if, because you prepared the food yourself, it doesn't taste as bad as when other people make it, and when I eat food you prepared, it doesn't taste bad at all, because we're both afflicted."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't really make any sense."

"There's a lot that doesn't make sense. Speaking of," she said, looking back at Eclipsa and the Queen, "Unpause."

The Queen looked offended. "I trust every single one of the nobles with my life. Are you seriously suggesting that one of them is responsible for this?"

Eclipsa threw up her arms. "I don't know! But we need to focus the investigation inwards. It's not doing us any good to fixate on the Monsters, when they probably aren't even responsible."

The Queen sighed, and took on a more sympathetic tone. "Look, dear. You're going to be Queen someday. If you expect to be a good Queen, you need to learn how to overlook your biases. You can't be a Queen who treats people unfairly, and with prejudice. You need to be able to step back and see the clear, objective picture."

Eclipsa gritted her teeth, balled her fists, and began to yell. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's exactly what you're doing! You're so... Indoctrinated by your superstitions and your beliefs that you're not seeing the whole picture!"

The Queen waved her hand. "Yelling is very unbecoming of a Queen too. Really now, do we need to go back to basic manners?"

"You're not listening to me! You're going to let a—"

The audio suddenly cut out, and a message appeared in front of Star and Marco: "THE CORRUPTION ON THE AUDIO DATA HAS BEGUN, AND PER STAR BUTTERFLY'S REQUEST, THE AUDIO HAS NOW BEEN MUTED."

Star nodded. "That's good. Bring the audio back if the corruption goes away."

Star and Marco then sat there, eating Nachos, while Eclipsa and the Queen continued to have a wordless argument.

Marco was the first to speak. "Seems like the audio cut out at a rather inopportune moment."

"Yeah. We still don't know exactly what they're talking about, but I guess someone in the Castle was doing something bad."

"What did I miss before I walked in?"

"Not much. Eclipsa's mom was hardcore on the Monster racism stuff. Whatever's going on, the Queen blames the Monsters, but Eclipsa thinks it's someone living in the Castle."

"Ah." Marco noticed the robed man in the back of the room, and his eyes widened. "Whoa. What's going on with that guy?"

Star glanced at the red splotch, and quickly averted her eyes. "Apparently we can't see him after the corruption begins. He's an old guy, wearing a long robe. I overheard him talking to the guard before Eclipsa showed up. Not much to say about him, except he's kind of a party animal, despite his age."

Marco tilted his head. "What do you think the odds are he's involved?"

Star was about to make a derisive noise, but stopped herself. "That... That could actually make sense." She looked upwards. "Mirror. Who is the man who we can't see anymore?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO READ DATA REGARDING THAT INDIVIDUAL."

Star looked furtively at Marco. "I'm not a master of probability, but I think the mirror just answered your question, at 100%." She looked at the wordless scene in front of them. "Alright, we can't even hear anything that's happening. So why don't we try something. Mirror. Bring us back 5 minutes again."

The Scene rewound to when Eclipsa first entered the room.

Star pointed at the man in the robe again. "Who is that man?"

"THE MAN IS GARRY PHOGON, THE MASTER ALCHEMIST OF THE MEWNIAN ROYAL ALCHEMY LAB, AND A RANKING MEMBER OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICER'S GUILD."


	16. HER BEST INTERESTS

Star and Marco continued to scan through the scene after the audio dropped, but the audio did not return until long after the conversation ended. Once the scene was turned off, Star opened up her notebook, wrote down 'Eclipsa speaks with mother," along with a date, and closed it. She then paced her room.

The Mewnie Artificer's Guild.

That name couldn't possibly be a coincidence. This was, pending contradictory evidence, proof of Star's theory: that the Artificers were once Mewman, and something happened to change them. Or maybe they were hiding their true selves, and simply unveiled themselves after a certain point. Star suspected they would have time to work that out.

Marco looked around Star's room. "Mewnie royal politics is kind of scary."

Star blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The conversation between Eclipsa and her mom. The Queen was so confident in her own intelligence that she was blind to really obvious problems."

Star narrowed her eyes. "I haven't been on Earth long enough to tell for sure, but Earth Politics don't seem that much different. The people who complain about everyone else being Biased are basically just covering up their own prejudices. The people who complain about how corrupt the government is are most responsible for the corruption."

Marco looked up at her. "You think so?"

"There's something I heard your dad say a couple of weeks—or I guess a couple of weeks plus-one-month—ago. 'If everywhere you go smells like poop, you'd better start looking under your own shoes.'" Star pointed at her feet. "Of course, I eventually worked out that he was speaking literally, not metaphorically, but the metaphorical version pairs nicely with something else _my_ dad once said, that you can judge a lot about a person's character by the things they assume about other people, especially people they've never met."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"

"Consider us, for a second. Our senses are messed up. Everywhere we go, everything is discolored, everything tastes bad, everything smells bad... Viewed solely from our perspective, it would be logical to presume that the world itself had gone mad, wouldn't you say? If neither of us knew about the Doom Curse, would we begin to wonder that the problem was really with us? That it isn't the world going to hell, that it isn't our friends and family that are blind to the madness?"

Considering this, Marco responded, "So, following the aphorisms you described, it's still logical to presume that we are, in fact, the crazy ones, because we perceive the rest of the world as being insane."

Star stumbled. "Er... Yeah, I guess so. I was actually more leading into talking about the queen. See, it's really obvious that her missing the obvious suspects in whatever is happening has to do with her overwhelming hatred of Monsters. She's so obsessed with the idea of Monsters being the root of all problems in society that she's ignoring the people ostensibly close to her causing problems. In this case, a Master Alchemist and ranking member of a royally sanctioned Guild. Eclipsa, on the other hand, didn't seem to have a strong opinion on whether Monsters are evil creatures or simply misunderstood, and she's seeing the picture more clearly than the Queen. I don't know whether she saw the full, unbiased picture in its totality, but she's certainly closer to the truth than her mother was."

"Well, sure."

"Not only that, by moving so aggressively to relocate or even kill the Monsters in her kingdom, she was only making things worse. So she did two terrible things: she's missed the obvious threat under her nose, and made new problems for everyone else herself. And she could have fixed all of that, if she had simply had the self awareness to say to herself 'Hey, maybe I'm the one who has crap under their shoes'. But," Star said, wrapping up, "The fact that we're now dealing with the fallout says pretty clearly that she never did, or if she did, it was already too late. Heck, I don't think Eclipsa would have turned out the way she did later in life if her mother had been a better parent."

Marco looked out the window, to avert his gaze.

"Anyways. Setting all that aside, I think it's fair to say that we now have another lead. The fact that we now know the origin—or at least the probable origin—of the Artificers means if anything involving Eclipsa turns out to be a dead lead, we can start looking at the members of the Artificer's guild."

"So, the name 'Artificer' comes from the guild that they were associated with? What does 'Artificer' mean, in this context?"

Star stopped in place. "When I was younger, I once heard my mom refer to a group of women who were responsible for maintenance on the Wand, as 'Artificers'. We don't have an Artificer's Guild in Mewnie anymore—and I now suspect that has something to do with Eclipsa—but we did have people you might colloquially refer to as 'Artificers', which was a catch-all term for anyone who knew magic involving 'creating or maintaining things'. Like, if you wanted a magical item created, you'd have to find someone who could fabricate the item, and then you'd have to find someone to enchant the item. Both of those people, depending on the context, would be called an Artificer."

"Creation of Magical Items?" Marco said, his eyes widening.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Like a mirror that can see everything in the past, present, and future, yet inexplicably can't read anything having to do with a guild of people whose sole talents are creating items like that?" To punctuate his point, Marco's eyes quickly darted towards the mirror.

Star's eyes widened. "Wha— Are you suggesting...? The Iris Experiment... Does 'Iris' mean...?"

Marco looked at the mirror. "Hey, mirror. How old are you?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO CALCULATE ITS EXACT AGE, DUE TO A WIDE VARIETY OF FACTORS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE RELATIVITY OF THE PASSAGE OF TIME BETWEEN DIMENSIONS AND THE FACT THAT THIS DEVICE HAS, FOR A RATHER SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF ITS EXISTENCE, EXISTED OUTSIDE THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF. HOWEVER, THIS DEVICE CAN REPORT THAT THE EARLIEST RECORDED INSTANCE OF THIS DEVICE EXISTING IN YOUR UNIVERSE WAS APPROXIMATELY TWO-HUNDRED-THOUSAND YEARS AGO, AND THAT EVERY SUCCESSIVE INSTANCE OF THIS DEVICE EXISTING IN YOUR UNIVERSE HAD THIS DEVICE'S AGE PROGRESS IN A LINEAR, EUCLIDEAN DIRECTION FORWARDS."

Marco's face drooped. "Oh. I guess that debunks that theory."

Star's eye twitched. "I, uh, didn't understand that last part."

Marco responded, saying, "it's basically saying that it didn't travel backwards through time or anything like that."

Star tilted her head. "Alright. So when was the time period that you were brought into this universe last?" She said, directing her question at the mirror.

"THIS DEVICE CANNOT IDENTIFY THE PRECISE DATE, DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF RATHER SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF CORRUPT DATA, BUT IT CAN NARROW IT DOWN TO A RANGE BETWEEN THE FOLLOWING TWO DATES:"

What followed on the mirror were two dates that Star immediately recognized: the first was the date that Star and Marco had just seen on the mirror, involving Eclipsa arguing with her mother, and the second was about two years later.

Star looked at Marco, with a look of shock on her face. "Those Artificers weren't responsible for creating this thing, but it ended up in that cave around the same time." She looked at the mirror. "Speculate on how likely it is that that is a coincidence."

"SPECULATION: 0.0000". Consensus: 1.0000, Confidence: 0.9790.

Star stared at the mirror. "So this thing is connected to everything!"

Marco leaned back. "I mean, it makes sense. We found it in a cave adjacent to an Artificer. That's an awful coincidence."

They both went silent for a period of time, both trying to process what they had just learned.

Star eventually spoke up. "Alright. I'm going to take us to the next available scene. I want to know what happened next." Star walked towards the mirror.

"Uh."

She looked at Marco. "What is it?"

He stood up, and looked regretfully at Star. "I'm going to pass. I'd like to lie down, maybe text Jackie for awhile."

Star frowned. "Alright."

He walked towards the door.

"Hey, Marco..."

"What is it?"

"How... Are things going with Jackie? Like in general?"

Marco turned to face her, and a grimace spread across his face. "I... Don't really know how to feel right now."

Star took a step towards him, unconsciously. "What do you mean?"

"It's like..." Marco struggled for words for a brief moment. "For starters, that thing, where we mitigate the curse's effect around each other? Doesn't happen with her. So I have to deal with that whenever I'm with her. Then, on top of that, every time I see her, I'm reminded of the fact that right now, I have an expiration date. And it doesn't seem like she understands that."

Star shrugged, her voice trembling. "Maybe she trusts that we'll find a way to save you."

Marco made a strained face. "I mean, _maybe_. But when I told her I was dying, she didn't even seem to react much. Like I'd told her that I'd sprained an ankle or something."

"Maybe..." Star's mind drifted briefly to the profane texts that Jackie had sent, and to the way that Jackie had described them to her before Star actually saw them. "Maybe she's dealing with her own baggage right now."

Marco blinked. "What?"

"Like..." Star gripped her sides tightly. She wasn't even sure if she was telling the truth or a lie, but she felt like it was something she needed to say: "Maybe Jackie has been dealing with stuff in her own life, possibly since before you and her started dating, and it's preventing her from properly engaging with your situation."

Marco opened his mouth but didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Star... Do you know something?"

Star looked out the window, briefly, then back to him. "Marco. I don't want to be in the business of keeping secrets, so I think you should know that earlier this week, I used the mirror to find out what Jackie had texted you while we were gone."

Marco looked surprised, then angry. "Why?"

"I don't even really know why," Star lied, "but the point is, I did look."

There was a pause, while Marco looked at Star, his expression revealing that he clearly expected Star to say more. "Well?"

Star grimaced. "I'm not going to tell you what they said, even if you ask me. If you really want to know, the mirror is right there," she said, pointing at the mirror.

Marco now looked suspicious, but didn't move.

"It's... It's really just that I'm not comfortable using the same language she used out loud."

Marco looked at the floor. "That bad, huh?"

"She did say to me that she felt pretty gross about the stuff she said, and yeah, I'd say that's an appropriate response."

"She said something similar to me."

Star shook her head. "Anyways. There was a different point I was getting at. Regardless of the actual content of those texts, it is really clear to me that, to some capacity, she does really care about you. I... Have some dissenting thoughts about how healthy, genuine, or well-intentioned her affection is, but I wouldn't deny that she does, in fact, care about her relationship with you. So if it seems like she's not taking it seriously, I think it's because there's other stuff going on with her that she hasn't told you about."

Marco folded his arms. "Why wouldn't she tell me?"

"Maybe she thought she couldn't? I mean, she could tell we weren't doing so well after we got back. Maybe her own issues felt too trivial to talk about, or like she felt that if she did talk about it, she would be minimizing your issues."

Another pause.

"What..." Marco began, "... kind of stuff did she text me? Like, I don't need to know the graphic details, but I do want to know the general gist of it."

Star blushed. "Well, she clearly did believe at one point that you and I had run off together."

"Run off together...?"

"Like romantically."

"Oh." Marco said, stonefaced.

"And she had some really, uh, graphic ideas about what we were doing with each other, after having run off together."

Marco ran his hand across his forehead. "Right. I think I get the idea."

"There were also texts apologizing for all of it. And I presume she apologized to you herself about all of it."

Marco nodded.

Star could feel that her armpits were very wet right now. "How do you feel about all that?"

Marco shrugged. "The reason I forgave her was because I understood, instinctively, that both of us, and her by proxy, had been put in a situation that none of us were ever prepared to deal with or respond to. I had no way of telling her 'hey, I'm fine, I'm literally just stuck in a time warp', and she had no way of responding to me vanishing one day with no explanation or justification. So if she reacted badly to it all, it's... It feels bad to call it 'Excusable' or 'Justified', but it kind of is, you know?"

Star nodded sadly. "I think I do."

Marco smiled. "You know, I feel like I don't say this enough Star, but you're a really good friend."

Star frowned. "I'm a really good friend for spying on what was supposed to be a private conversation between you and your girlfriend?"

Marco grabbed the back of his head. "I mean, okay, that wasn't the greatest thing to do, but I feel like, if you were anyone else, they'd be telling me about how I need to dump Jackie, how she's not good enough for me, how this is a warning sign for the future. You, instead, however, tried to understand and empathize with the situation."

Star shook her head. "Would other people really have acted any differently?"

Marco opened his mouth, then didn't say anything for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe that was just what I expected you to do."

"Why?"

Marco averted his gaze. "I guess it seems like there's been friction between you and Jackie lately. Like, I know the two of you were never exactly close friends, but it seems like you don't really like her right now. So when you said you'd seen the texts, I thought you were going to tell me... Well, like I said."

Star's fingers pressed tightly into her ribs. "I really, really don't want to hurt either of you. Regardless of the situation."

Marco smiled again. "I guess that makes sense." He turned back towards the door. "Let me know if you need any help."

"I will."

After Marco left the room and closed the door, Star listened to his footsteps in the hallway, until he closed his door.

Star kicked the foot of her desk, and tried to wipe away the tears that had formed around her eyes.

"Damn it."

Star genuinely didn't want to break up Marco and Jackie. Whatever her own feelings for Marco, if they broke up because of her, she'd always feel bad about it, and if Marco left Jackie for her, how would she know that he wasn't ever thinking about Jackie instead?

But that didn't make doing the right thing feel any good.


	17. SHE DESERVED IT

**~A Note from the Author~**

**Uh.**

**Ya'll read the Foreword, right?**

**Because I wasn't kidding.**

…

* * *

Friday.

52 days until Marco was going to die.

Star briefly asked the mirror to reassess the odds, but nothing had changed. It was hardly a surprise: Star was learning a lot about Eclipsa and the Artificers, and she was certain to learn a lot more about the Mirror, but none of this had yet yielded a definitive lead towards saving Marco.

Marco and Jackie were spending the day with each other, after school. Marco stood by his original decision to forgive Jackie: Everything she'd texted him was under extreme stress and the compounded effect of a panic attack.

_It's just as well_ , Star had thought to herself. _Even if he left her, would he even want me instead?_

The image of Marco's face superimposed itself in her head.

When Star asked the mirror to speculate whether Marco would be "able to handle it" if he found out about his imminent mortality, she hadn't asked it to clarify what exactly that would mean. When the mirror said he wouldn't be able to handle it, she'd assumed that it would mean that he would lose his mind, or just shut down entirely.

Instead, the actual effect was arguably a lot worse, but also a lot more subtle. Marco didn't want to talk much anymore, or crack jokes. Friendship Thursday was on indefinite hiatus, because last night, when they'd tried to sit down to watch a movie, he ended up leaving about 10 minutes in. Star had briefly wondered if that meant he was spending more time with Jackie, but he was spending a lot less time with her, too.

Marco had more than a month before the worst of the symptoms would begin to set in, but it already felt like he was slipping away.

And there was one other thing.

Star wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was a nagging sensation in the back of her head. In some respects, it had been there all week, ever since they got Eclipsa's book, but Star had only noticed it now.

A nagging sensation that there was something really important she was missing. Like something she should already know, or something she knew but forgot.

The more she tried to think about it, though, the less she knew what it was.

Star leaned back in her desk chair. It was still mid-afternoon.

She picked up her phone. Marco wasn't available to help analyze the scenes involving Eclipsa, but Star still wanted a research assistant.

"Hey, Janna?"

* * *

"So this isn't about the Helcroft lead?"

Star shook her head. "I told you already, Janna, I won't want to have anything to do with caves unless I've literally got no other option. We've still got 7 weeks to solve this, and I'm not convinced the Mirror can accurately assess the risk from dealing with an Artificer or one of its minions."

Janna shrugged. "Alright." She sat down on Star's bed, and Star sat next to her. "So what, we gotta both look at the mirror?"

"No, it can project the scene into our heads. Mirror. Take us to the scene with Eclipsa and her mother, the one Marco and I saw yesterday, then play it. Same rules regarding the corruption as before."

Janna gasped as she saw the scene materialize before her for the first time. Once again, the mirror took them to shortly before Eclipsa walked into the room, while the Member of the Artificer's Guild was speaking to the guard. "Oh wow!"

"Yeah."

"I take back what I said before... I actually am a little upset you haven't let me play with this thing before."

Star snorted wryly. "Marco and I already saw this scene, but I figured it would be a good idea for you to see it too, so you know the context for what we're dealing with."

"Fair enough," Janna said, watching with fascination the scene play out..

The two of them sat in silence. Star was half watching the scene, half watching Janna. The thing Star noticed is that Janna seemed very distracted by the Artificer's Guild Member, to the point where even after Eclipsa arrived and began arguing with her mother, it took Janna some time before her focus fully shifted to the Queen and Princess.

"Gaslighting bitch."

Star's eyes widened. "What?"

"The Queen, I mean," Janna said quickly, "she's obviously gaslighting her daughter."

Star tilted her head. "I'm not familiar with the concept of Gaslighting."

"Eh... Basically, it's when you manipulate someone, either by pretending things are okay when they aren't, or by pretending things are bad when they aren't. The idea is to make the other person genuinely confused about what reality actually is."

"Oh." Star blinked. "So wait, you think this is deliberate on the Queen's part?"

"Oh yeah," Janna said, without skipping a beat, "the Queen is definitely hiding something. She's not just being dumbfoundingly Racist—though, make no mistake, she's absolutely doing that too—she's relying on that crap to flimsily justify her bad decisions because she can't tell the truth to the Princess." She turned to Star. "You said that the old guy in the back of the room is involved as well?"

"We haven't confirmed it yet," Star said, "but we're pretty sure he becomes one of the Artificers. We think the name 'Artificer' is a reference to his title in the Artificer's Guild."

"Ugh. I'm now very worried for exactly _how_ he's involved."

Star raised an eyebrow.

"We heard the conversation he was having with the guard before, right? Yeah, there's something very creepy about his behavior. Very predatory. One of the girls in my book club has a blog where she talks about Feminism and other stuff like that, right? She talks a LOT about men like him, who talk and act the way he does, and how it's pretty much always a sign that they're a predator of some kind."

"A predator...? Like—"

"A sexual predator," Janna said, without a trace of emotion in her voice.

Star shivered. "You think he goes around, like..." Star didn't want to finish the sentence.

Janna sighed. "I mean, obviously, we don't know anything about him except the circumstantial evidence. Maybe he's never done anything like that before, maybe he's just talking the way he expects the guard to want him to talk. People his age can sometimes develop a complex about wanting the younger generation to think they're 'cool'. But at the end of the day, the fact that he's saying stuff like that pretty definitively proves that there's something rotten going on and that he's at least tangentially connected."

Star put her arms around herself.

Janna noticed Star's body language. "Oh. I'm sorry. One of the girls I hang out with volunteers at a clinic where they help assault victims, so I guess I've been a bit desensitized to this kind of talk. I forget that for some people this stuff can be really gruesome."

Star shook her head. "No. If that's really what we're dealing with here, I need to understand it, and not look away from it."

Janna looked like she had a response to that, but she didn't say anything.

At that moment, Star remembered the dream that Marco had told her about. That too had unsettled her greatly, and if nothing else, it might be good to talk to Janna about it.

"Hey, on that subject..."

Janna looked directly at Star. "What?"

"Marco told me... He had a really bad dream, about me, uh... 'Violating' him. After we both got afflicted with the Doom Curse. I wasn't sure what to make of it at the time, because I figured it was just an extreme manifestation of the curse preying on our insecurities, but this is starting to sound like... Janna?"

The color had drained from Janna's face, and her eyes got wide. "Oh fuck me."

Star was taken aback. "What?!"

"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK."

Janna had whirled around to look at the ensuing argument between Eclipsa and her mother.

"Janna, what's the matter?"

"Hang on, pause for a second," Janna said, addressing the mirror. The scene froze. Janna put her hand on her head. "This is so fucked up."

"Did you figure something out?"

Janna gave a dark look at Star. "This isn't some kind of trick, is it?"

Star's mouth hung open. "Why would it be? What are you talking about?"

"Okay, okay. Do we know anything about what crime the Artificers supposedly committed?"

Star, not catching the implication, raised an eyebrow. "No... Do we need to know?"

Janna gripped her left shoulder with her right hand. "I don't know. This is your bullshit! All I'm doing is witnessing it from an outside perspective."

"Janna, calm down!"

"I'm sorry! It's just..." Janna peered through her fingers at the frozen scene. "I just had no idea how fucked up this was going to get."

"What's going on?"

Janna's eyes swiveled to Star. "My morbid curiosity is getting the better of me, so I'm going to ask the mirror to show me what happened. I'm not sure you should see."

Star averted her gaze. "I... I can handle it."

"No. You can't."

Star frowned, then looked defiantly at Janna. "I will anyways!"

Janna's eyes narrowed slightly. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you." She removed her hand and looked upwards. "Uhh. Mirror. In this scene, Eclipsa is talking about a 'third kid' who spoke to her. Can you take us to when that happened?"

The scene flashed briefly. Now, they were in a Mewman home. A woman was sitting at the dining table, watching a young girl, who was sitting in the next room on the floor, not doing much of anything.

Janna raised an eyebrow. "Uh, why are we...?"

There was a knock at the door. The woman immediately stood up and briskly walked to the door.

Eclipsa, looking very worried, was on the other side of it.

The woman immediately greeted Eclipsa by bowing before her. "Your royal highness. Thank you so much for coming to see us. We've been trying to get in touch with the authorities, but no one is accepting our requests. I cannot express my—"

Eclipsa nodded briefly, then looked at the girl on the floor, who was looking up at the two of them with a worried expression. "Is that her?" She asked, cutting the woman off.

"Yes." The woman suddenly looked unnerved. "Um, what are you...?"

Eclipsa slowly approached the girl, who backed away instinctively. When she saw this, Eclipsa stopped in place, and slowly lowered herself until she was kneeling at the girl's level. "Hello."

The girl looked very frightened.

"My name is Eclipsa. Would you like to tell me your name?"

"Her name is Daisy," the woman interjected.

Eclipsa looked up at the woman. "I appreciate that, but it's really best if she answers the questions herself." She turned back to the girl. "Is it true that your name is Daisy?"

The girl still looked frightened, but she slowly nodded her head.

"That's a nice name. Do you like it?"

Daisy nodded a little faster this time.

"What about my name? Do you like my name?"

Daisy didn't respond, and just stared at Eclipsa.

"You can be honest."

Daisy slowly shook her head.

Eclipsa wore a small smile. "That's okay. I'm not crazy about it myself."

The girl continued to stare at her.

Star looked at Janna, who was focused intensely on the conversation. "What is she doing?"

Janna grimaced. "I've seen this kind of thing before. If this is what I think it is..."

Eclipsa continued talking, "I tried to get my name changed once, but my mom wouldn't let me. Parents can be kinda strict sometimes, huh?"

For the briefest of moments, Daisy smiled.

"Would it be okay with you if I sat down next to you?"

Daisy nodded.

"Alright." Eclipsa slowly edged forwards, and sat cross-legged in front of Daisy. "How old are you?"

In a soft voice, Daisy answered. "Eight."

"I see." Eclipsa frowned. "Do you know why I'm here?"

Daisy looked frightened again. "I'm in trouble."

Eclipsa shook her head. "No, no, no. You're not in trouble, Daisy. I want you to know that. You're not in trouble, your mommy isn't in trouble, no one is in trouble. You can tell me anything you want, and you won't get in trouble. I'm making a special Princess Promise to you that you won't get in trouble."

Daisy simply stared at her.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions. If you don't want to answer them, just tell me. You don't have to answer any questions you don't want to. Is that okay?"

Daisy nodded.

"Okay. Yesterday, when your mommy was out of the house, did you meet anyone you hadn't met before?"

Daisy nodded again. Her hands started pulling at her hair.

"What did they look like?"

"He was tall." Daisy didn't say anything else.

"Was he a Mewman, or a Monster?"

"Mewman."

"Okay. Did he tell you why he was there?"

Daisy shook her head.

"Okay. Did he touch you anywhere?"

Star gasped. "Wait... Did she just say—"

"Yes," Janna said curtly. "Just listen."

Daisy stared at Eclipsa, and it looked like her eyes were going to water up.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Slowly, Daisy nodded.

Eclipsa nodded. "Okay. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to touch parts of my body. All you need to do is nod if he touched you there. Can you do that for me?"

Daisy nodded.

Eclipsa touched her left hand with her right hand. Then she touched her right hand with her left hand. She then touched the top of her head.

When Eclipsa touched her mouth, Daisy nodded. Eclipsa nodded in return, and then continued. She touched her shoulders, one after the other, then touched her abdomen.

Eclipsa then very gently touched her chest, and Daisy nodded again.

Star looked at Janna, whose expression hadn't changed from the Stony, focused expression she'd had before.

Eclipsa then touched her knees, then her thighs, then her sides.

Then, slowly and deliberately, Eclipsa touched her groin. When Daisy nodded, the mother gasped briefly and quietly.

Eclipsa nodded, and then touched her feet. Then she reached around and touched her back, and then she touched her forehead.

"Okay. I think we're done. Thank you, Daisy, you've been extremely helpful to me. You've done something very good for me. I want you to know that. Your mommy and I are going to have a brief conversation, okay? We won't go anywhere." Eclipsa stood up, and motioned to the mother to join her in the kitchen.

As they entered the kitchen, Eclipsa reached into her purse and began to pull out a lump sum of cash. "Alright, here's the deal. She needs to see a doctor right away. There's a pediatrician I've been recommending the other kids go see, who's specialized in dealing with cases like this. She already knows what's going on, and she'll be able to take a look at Daisy without an appointment. This," Eclipsa said, holding up a number of coins, "is her fee. She may offer to waive it, but pay her anyways. The Medical Guild isn't paying her what she deserves."

Eclipsa placed the money on the table, and began to count out a few more coins. "Daisy will need to have some bloodwork done, just to make sure. This," she said, holding up the coins, "will cover the lab expenses. Have them do a full profile, not just the STD profile. The standards are out of date, and the full profile is more likely to catch something."

This money was also placed on the table.

"Now, the next thing—"

The mother cut her off, looking angry. "I'm sorry. Are you trying to buy our silence?"

Eclipsa gave the mother a very stern look. "Even if you had money, which I'm quite confident you don't, I want to make sure she gets the help she needs. It's not any concern of mine whom you talk to. Though, if you are receptive to my advice, I would suggest that you keep this under wraps until I have a suspect in custody. This happened yesterday, correct?"

The mother nodded in an insecure way.

"That makes it extremely probable that whoever did this is one of the nobles. If you go public, they may try to silence you themselves, and trust me, they're not going to treat you with any degree of respect or dignity, and if I don't have a handle on the situation by then, I won't be able to help you, and worse, it might harm my ability to bring that person to justice. Now, the next thing you need to do is keep an eye on Daisy's behavior. She might be okay: sometimes when they're young or innocent enough, the fact that they don't understand it can protect them. But whether she seems okay, or if it seems like she's not eating well, or is getting in trouble at school, or is otherwise behaving abnormally, you should start regular sessions with a therapist. The doctor will have recommendations, and this," Eclipsa said, holding up a few more coins, "will cover the expenses for three months. If you're having trouble after that point, you can contact me again, and I'll see to making sure she can keep going."

The mother nodded, now less combative than before. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to do everything in my power to catch whoever is doing this."

Eclipsa turned and walked back to the door. When she got there, she turned to Daisy. "Thank you again, Daisy. Your mommy is going to take you to go see a doctor soon, if anything doesn't feel right, they'll help fix it."

Eclipsa stepped out of the house, and the mother waved from the door. "Thank you, your royal highness! I won't forget this!"

Eclipsa turned her head. "If any of the Nobles come to talk to you, whether it seems like they know about Daisy or not, or even if they know anything... Cooperate with them, but then make sure you write down their name and remember what they look like."

The woman looked shocked, but quickly nodded. "Okay."

* * *

Star had curled up into a ball on her bed. Her whole body was shaking. She felt cold, and gross, and numb. "Oh my god."

Janna sighed. "Yeah. I was really hoping I was wrong."

"That's... That's just..."

"I know."

Star clasped her head in her hands.

Janna glanced to the side. "Hey, I have a question. You told me once that Eclipsa was some kind of Queen of Darkness, who basically caused a bunch of bad shit to go down. Now, I know we're seeing her as a princess, so maybe this happened before all that bad stuff happened, but I'm really confused: she seems like one of the good guys here."

Star poked her head up. "I really don't know. The only thing I know about her is that she left the kingdom to run off with a Monster for her lover instead. And she's got a chapter in our book of spells that's all full of darkness and evil, so that doesn't bode well. I don't know enough to really say much about her, but yeah, based on what we're seeing here... At the very least, the truth is more complicated than I was taught."

Janna folded her arms. "So... We don't have any proof to connect Daisy to the man we saw in the throne room, or for that matter, his associates. But the fact that there was an 'Artificer's Guild', and that all the creatures are simply referred to as 'Artificers', and that in Eclipsa's journal, she talked a lot about the Artificers and how they 'deserved' what happened to them... And then, finally, Marco, afflicted by a curse inflicted by an Artificer, has nightmares featuring assault imagery..." Janna paused, looking at Star, "There's lots of room for some or all of those things to be coincidences, but if I were around in that time, with any degree of law enforcement power, I'd be requisitioning Arrest Warrants."

"Pretty much," Star said, her voice without emotion.

Star buried her head again. "This is just... Awful."

"Yeah. I feel gross just talking about it. I can't even being to imagine how you feel right now."

"Violated. I haven't even had anything physically done to me, and I feel like I'm being stripped down."

Janna nodded solemnly.

Star uncurled herself. "Okay. So after this, Eclipsa went to talk to her mother, right?" She said, addressing the mirror.

"CORRECT."

"Alright. There was something else I was planning to see today, but... Not right now. Not like this. Let's get out of this."

The scene vanished and Star's room quickly blinked back into existence.

Star let out a long drawn sigh.

"I have a bad question to ask," Janna said. "Does any of this even help you? Does knowing about what the Artificers did help you save Marco, or did we literally just find out the _worst thing ever_ for no reason?"

Star shook her head. "I don't know. I can't even begin to think about whether knowing this stuff can help us or not."

"Fair enough." Janna stood up. "So, I'm thinking I'm going to go home, take a nice long bubble bath, raid my parent's liquor cabinet, and drink exactly 6 ounces of Vodka."

Star gave a bewildered look at Janna.

"I calibrated. It's exactly enough to get me drunk without screwing up my brain. I don't do this kind of stuff often, but I definitely need it now.

"Alright," Star said, sighing. "Have a good night, then."

"You too," Janna said, walking to the door.

However, she stopped in front of the door and turned around to face Star. "Hey. I do know a few people who have dealt with... Well, the point is, if you need someone to talk to, they might be better equipped to talk about this kind of stuff than I am, and if you continue looking into this stuff involving the Artificers, I suspect it's only going to get more and more messed up. So if you start feeling particularly... Down... Let me know."


	18. CRIMSON KIPPER

Jackie stayed for dinner that night.

While Marco and Star were picking at their food, trying not to gag on the taste, Jackie carried on a conversation with the Diaz's, who were doting on her.

At least, that's what Star assumed.

Every time Jackie spoke, Star didn't hear words. She just heard a loud aggravating buzzing sound that seemed to come from everywhere simultaneously. Angie and Raphael sounded muted, like their speech was behind a door, but they were at least audible and understandable. Every time Jackie spoke, Star had to guess at what she was saying based on how people were responding to her.

After a couple of minutes of this, Star passed a note to Marco asking if he was hearing the same thing. He reported back that Jackie sounded fine to him.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Star.

Did Marco's parents know about Marco's mortality?

She looked at them, who both looked like their normal cheerful selves. If they knew anything, surely they would have brought it up at some point, right?

So Marco must not have told them. Star wasn't going to force his hand on that count; she'd kept it secret from him for quite some time, after all.

The buzzing began, louder than expected, and Star noticed that Jackie was looking at her. Visibly asking her a question.

"Uh."

What was she supposed to say?

She tried to stall for time by asking Jackie to repeat herself, but Marco spoke first: "Uhh, I don't really know the rules that well, but I don't think Star's allowed to talk about that kind of stuff. The Butterfly's are kind of secretive about their magic, you know?"

Star reached behind her back. "Yeah. I might get in trouble if I run my mouth about it, you know?"

Jackie raised an eyebrow. Something told Star that her answer hadn't quite lined up with the question that had been asked. But Jackie didn't pursue it any further and returned to eating the food.

Star looked at her own plate.

Not only did the food taste bad, it was starting to _look_ bad too. She knew this was supposed to be some kind of meatloaf, but it looked moldy, and even though she could bite into it, it felt like she was biting into glass.

Before she went to bed that night, she ended up puking into the toilet.

* * *

"What was the question Jackie had asked me?"

Star was in her pajamas, sitting on Marco's bed. She had allowed herself to sit closer to him than was probably 'proper', but she really needed the inoculating effects of his presence tonight. Plus, in its own right, it was comforting.

"She asked if your people had ever invented a magical cure for Acne."

Star groaned. "And my answer..."

"Made it sound like it was some kind of grand conspiracy."

"Which is weird when talking about something so benign."

Marco curled up slightly. "Sorry."

Star turned to him. "For what?"

"I gave a bad answer. I couldn't tell whether _everyone_ was inaudible to you, or whether just Jackie, so I gave a generic answer, assuming you wouldn't need to say anything else."

"It's alright. I know you were just trying to help."

"So it's just Jackie it's happening with?"

Star stared at the wall for about a minute. "It shouldn't be surprising. You were right: I have issues with Jackie. So as usual, the curse is taking advantage of that, and aggravating it."

"What issues do you have with her?"

Star shook her head. "It's not anything specific, just kind of a general social incompatibility, I think."

Star reasoned the answer was vague enough that Marco wouldn't pry into it.

Marco looked at the floor. "What is this curse actually supposed to do?"

"Kill us. Or you, at least."

"Right, but... Then why all this other stuff? Our perception getting messed up. Me having those creepy dreams."

Star gripped the bedsheets. "About that... Janna and I looked into the Eclipsa stuff today, while you and Jackie were out. We discovered a new wrinkle to the curse. The people responsible for casting it were Sexual Predators."

Marco's whole body stiffened.

"So... My theory is that killing us is just the endgame of the curse. Its purpose might be a form of sadism."

Marco clasped his head in one of his hands. "How? Like... What the hell."

"I still need to confirm it, and I'll be doing that this weekend, but the writing is on the wall at this point: basically, the Artificer's Guild probably was complicit in a massive coverup of systemic abuse in and near the palace. Perhaps even across the entire kingdom. As was the then-Queen of Mewnie."

"So... Does knowing that help us at all?"

"Not really," Star admitted. "It was a thread Janna decided to tug. But I don't think it's useless information."

"What do you mean?"

"Your dreams are being manipulated by the curse. And probably mine, too. You don't have to be ashamed of their contents."

Marco's eyes widened slightly. "I wasn't..." His voice trailed off, and his mouth closed. He then looked at the floor.

Star didn't say anything; she knew this would be a difficult conversation, even with her assurances.

"It's just not something you ever want to think about, you know? Much less talk about."

"Yeah."

Another silence.

Star stood up. "I'm going to go lie down. I'd say 'get some sleep', but I think you know as well as I do how that's going to go."

Marco snorted. "Yeah."

Star crossed through the shared bathroom to her own room. In the bathroom, she poured herself a glass of water. Star had bought, for the both of them, a bottle of artificial sweetener to use in their water: it didn't make the water taste good, but it helped drown out the awful taste normally associated with it. She opened the top and squirted a liberal amount of the sweetener into her water, before continuing the rest of the way into her room.

She drank about half the cup before lying down in bed.

Star closed her eyes. If she dared fall asleep, she'd probably have to face the nightmares again. She couldn't remember how long ago she last slept. Being a Mewman, she could certainly stand to stay awake longer than Marco could, but even she had her limits.

Her mind drifted. She tried to process everything she'd learned today, in hopes that it would somehow, against all odds, be relevant to figuring out how to reverse the curse.

The bathroom door slammed open.

Star, panicking, grabbed her wand and pointed it towards the door, preparing a spell.

"Star!"

It was Marco, his voice similarly panicked. But Star couldn't see him.

In fact, she couldn't see anything in her room, except the immediate vicinity. Everywhere else she could only see pitch blackness.

Just like when they were in the Archives.

"Marco, close the door, and get over here."

She heard the door close, and Marco suddenly appeared in her vicinity, his face worn and scared. "The fog is back."

"I can see."

"Which means..."

Star got out of bed and stood up, holding her wand. "Get into my bed, and don't move. If you see anything, just scream."

Marco nodded, and sat down on her bed.

Star immediately began patrolling the room. If Marco could see the fog from his room, that meant the effect wasn't limited to the immediate vicinity of whatever was haunting them. So Star did the only thing she felt was practical in a situation like this: she began casting a powerful alarm spell, which would go off if anyone—or anything—entered the vicinity of her room. But first, she needed to make sure whatever it was wasn't already in the room.

She did several sweeps of the room, and didn't see the glowing red eyes.

"Alright."

She cast the spell, and once she was confident that all the doors and windows were properly covered, she stopped to take a breather. Crossing to the window, Star glanced out the window, and quickly ducked back out of sight.

Without taking time to count, Star saw at least a dozen pairs of glowing red eyes, wandering through the streets. "They're out there," Star whispered.

"How many?" She heard Marco whisper back in a choked voice.

"More than I was able to count. I'm not risking staying by the window too long: I don't know whether they can see through the fog or not."

Star worked her way to her desk, and grabbed the mirror. "Show me what it looks like outside."

The mirror was not helpful: It neither rendered the fog, nor the red eyes. In fact, it didn't seem to perceive at all that anything was out there.

But that made sense, Star reasoned. Normal people can't see them, so it's unlikely the mirror could too.

But suddenly, she had an idea.

"Could you behave as a one-way mirror for a moment? What I mean by that is, reflect any light from outside the room, and ignore any light from inside the room."

"THIS DEVICE CANNOT ALTER PHYSICAL DATA. IT CAN, HOWEVER, DESCRIBE A SPELL THAT WOULD ACHIEVE THE INTENDED EFFECT, WERE YOU TO CAST IT."

"Do that."

The mirror provided a series of instructions. Star noticed that the spell that the mirror came up with was very different from any of the spells described in the book of spells, in terms of invocation. Star carefully mimicked the instructions, and casting the spell on the mirror's surface, it began to behave like she expected. This time, the mirror rendered the fog, and the glowing red eyes outside. They were patrolling about, and Star could tell right away that there were at least several dozen.

Star felt prickly and cold. "Alright. I'm good."

She set the mirror on the desk as it returned to normal, and she strode to her bed, where Marco was sitting, his arms clamped around his knees.

"Okay, Marco. I've put an Alarm Spell around the room. It won't keep anything out—I don't know any magic powerful enough to do that, much less whether it would work—but we can sleep now. If anything gets in, we'll at least know."

Marco didn't look assured.

"It's the best we can do."

He nodded hesitantly. "Alright."

"Get off my bed for a second."

"Right, I was gonna ask, where am I going to...?" Marco began to ask, as Star began to use magic to push her bed into the corner of the room. "Uh...?"

"I'm putting myself between the windows and doors, and you. I'm hardier than you are, and have better ability to defend myself."

Marco looked like he had an argument to that assertion, but didn't say it. "So wait, we're both sleeping in the same bed?"

"Do you want to sleep on the floor?"

"No, but..."

Star pointed to the far side of the bed. "There's more than enough room for both of us."

Marco stopped objecting and climbed into Star's bed, scooting himself to the far end. Star unstacked her pillows and gave one to Marco. Then, stashing her wand under her own pillow, she climbed into the bed and laid herself out as straight as possible.

It was impossible to see the rest of the room.

"Alright, Marco. Let's just try to get some rest. If they don't see us, we'll get the rest of the night to lie down. If they do, I'll have time to respond before they attack us."

Marco didn't respond. Star turned to look at him, and saw that he had buried his head in the pillow.

"Marco?"

This time, his only response was an anguished sob. He was crying.

Star looked at him helplessly. She had no idea how to help him. "Marco. You don't have to hide yourself."

"I can't take this, Star."

"I know, Marco."

"No." Marco shook his head. "I mean, this, right here."

"What do you mean?" Star's heart skipped a beat, trying to read what he meant.

"When you told me I was going to die, I figured I'd at least have time to get my affairs in order, you know? But this is going to be the rest of my life, isn't it? Surrounded by darkness and being tortured by my own mind."

"You're not going to die, Marco!"

"YES I AM!"

He hadn't quite shouted, but it was definitely louder than he'd been before. He rolled onto his back, and was now looking at Star, tears streaming down his face.

Star shook her head, her body shaking. "You don't know that, Marco. I'm going to find something. I just have to keep looking."

He shook his head. "You keep saying that, but what are you going to find?"

"I... I... I don't know, okay? But I'm going to save you, I know it!"

"How? How could you possibly know that?"

"BECAUSE I HAVE TO!"

Marco stared at her, bewildered. "Wha...? What does that even mean?"

Star was now shaking violently, and tears formed in her eyes. "Because I can't let you die. Not ever."

Marco made a few noises with his mouth, like he was going to say something, but before he could, Star got up, leaned over him, grabbed his shoulders and continued.

"Marco, you're the single most important person in my life. Every single day I've spent on Earth has been fun because of you. Every moment I've spent dealing with this damn curse has been bearable because of you. If I lose you, I... I don't know what I'll do. So I can't. I can't lose you."

Star drooped her head and closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears from leaking out.

"Star..."

She looked at him. His eyes were the widest she'd ever seen, and his expression was impossible for Star to read.

"I really appreciate your dedication, but just wanting something to be true doesn't make it true."

Star's grip on his shoulders tightened. She sat there for a full minute in this stance, her hands on his shoulders, looking directly into his dreamy eyes.

Eventually, in a broken, croaked voice, she spoke:

"Why not?"

Marco blinked, looking taken aback. "Why not? Because... That's just how the universe works, isn't it?"

Star drooped her head again. "I refuse to accept it."

"You... What?"

"Any of it. Eclipsa didn't accept it. She discovered her government was enabling and covering up abuse, and she fought to change it. So whatever is trying to take you away from this world, I will fight it. If the universe itself, in its apathetic cruelty, thinks it's okay to kill you off, then I'll fight the whole universe if I have to. I swear I will."

One of her tears fell onto Marco's cheek.

He continued to stare at her, his expression inscrutable. Then, there was the slightest hint of a smile. "I almost... Believe you."

"You'd better." Star said, trying to wipe away her tears.

She crawled off of him and moved back to her spot. She looked around the room, and still saw the fog.

"Alright, try to get some—eep!"

Just as she tried to lay down, Marco had threw his arms around her, his hands locking with themselves on her abdomen. He then pulled her close to himself.

"Marco, what are you...?!"

"I'm thanking you," he said quietly.

Star tried to form cogent thoughts about why this hug, unlike so many they had shared before, felt so different. So much more comforting. Even as she could see nothing else in the room, it didn't feel like she was trapped. It felt like she was hidden from the world. Like in this moment, even as the world raged around them, she and Marco were the only ones who existed.

"This whole time… You been doing so much for me. Protecting me. Encouraging me." She heard him begin to choke up, as he started crying again. "I don't know what I would do without you."

Star stiffened slightly, feeling uncomfortable, and guilty. "I'm not as good a person as you think."

"I know. You're much better than that."

"No. I'm much worse than that. I spied on those text messages, even knowing full well that doing so would only bring more misery to you and Jackie. The only reason you're even dying is because of me." Star took a deep breath. "I'm not comforting you because I'm such a good person. It's just me trying to compensate for being a shitty friend. And because..." her voice trailed off, but Star's thoughts quickly turned to the well-understood fact that she wanted much, _much_ more from Marco than the hug she was presently getting.

Marco continued hugging her. "Star. Right now, I feel safe because of you. Whatever else you've done, this moment matters too. So let me thank you."

Star glanced around the darkness quickly, then wrapped her hands around Marco's. Star lost track of how long they spent, holding each other like this. Eventually though, Star could feel sweat forming where Marco was in contact with her, and as she removed her hands, Marco broke off the hug.

"I'm going to try to get some rest. Have a good night, Marco." She laid down, making sure to give Marco enough space for himself.

"You too, Star."

Star looked around again.

The fog was still there.

But, when Star laid her head down, something happened that hadn't happened in a long time: she had a peaceful sleep.


	19. A DISAPPOINTING DEVELOPMENT

The first thing Star noticed when she woke up was the fact that she was _waking up_. She hadn't simply laid in bed for hours trying to keep herself between awake and asleep; she'd actually fallen asleep, been spared the horrific nightmares, and properly woken up.

She turned towards Marco and opened her eyes. He was still asleep, the covers on top of him slowly rising and falling in sync with his breathing. She took a small amount of perverse pleasure at how jealous Jackie would be if she saw where Star was right now.

Star reached out and began to play with the curls of his hair. What she wouldn't give to do this when he was awake! But she knew, on some level, that it would be crossing a line. The way she'd acted the previous night had plausible deniability: just a friend really concerned for her friend. But if Marco caught her touching him like this, he'd probably begin to suspect how she really felt.

And yet, she couldn't help herself.

When it seemed like Marco was beginning to stir, Star quickly withdrew her hand, and turned around.

Star immediately screamed out loud.

The fog was gone, but the entire room was now covered in blood.

Marco jolted awake. "Whoa! What's going—Oh my god."

Star jumped out of bed, grabbing her wand, and felt her feet squish on the floor. The blood began to seep into her socks. The moment she left the bed, she could smell it: it reminded her immediately of what she'd smelled when she saw the Artificer as it was materializing. She clasped her nose and began to make her way to the bathroom door.

The bathroom was similarly coated in blood, and Marco's room, which she could see through the door he'd left open, was in a similar state.

"What the hell happened?!" Marco exclaimed.

Star looked around her room. Eclipsa's book and the Mirror were both untouched, but literally everything else was drenched in blood. Even the bed, though the sheets were clean, had been splattered with blood.

"I'm trying to figure out if this is real or not."

Marco stepped onto the carpet and he too noticed the blood soaking into his socks. "It feels pretty real."

Star opened the door to the hallway and looked around. The hallway too was drenched. And the stench got stronger. Star walked carefully down the stairs, trying to make sure she didn't trip over the increasingly uneven stairs. Once at the floor, she walked to the kitchen, and gasped.

Angie and Raphael were cooking breakfast in the kitchen. But they too were covered in blood. Raphael had a chunk of his midsection missing, and Star could see his internal organs pumping and beating through the wound. Angie's eye sockets were vacant, and all Star could see was red ligaments and muscles where her eyes should have been.

When Angie spoke to Star, her voice sounded incredibly distorted, as though it were coming through a voice filter: "hELLO sTAR! wOULD yOU lIKE sOME bREAKFAST? wE'VE mADE iT sPECIAL tODAY!"

Star backed away. "Uhh, I need to get Marco," she said quickly.

She turned to go back upstairs, but she saw Marco carefully inching down the last few steps, and when he looked up at Star and Angie, he too gasped in shock.

"aRE yOU tWO oKAY? yOU sEEM sURPRISED bY sOMETHING."

Marco forced a grin onto his face. "Just, you know, breakfast smells really good!"

Angie made an expression that Star was pretty sure was supposed to be a grin, and walked back into the kitchen, the lower half of her body seeming to lag ever so slightly behind the rest.

"That got a lot worse," Marco commented.

"Yeah."

"You think it had something to do with the visit last night?"

There were a few things Star was still trying to sort through regarding those creatures. If they could just spawn in wherever they pleased, why didn't they spawn in adjacent to Star and Marco? So the logical answer was that they couldn't; that they showed up in Echo Valley trying to find the two of them. But then that begged an entirely different question: what were they doing down in the archives?

So there was a new hypothesis, and it was a lot simpler than the old one: they were guarding the book. In the same way that the Artificers were guarding the Mirror, these new creatures were guarding the book.

It made sense. So why guard the book? Because if these things really were servants of the Artificers, they'd seek to protect the one thing that has all the secrets about how to kill them. And if it got stolen, they'd go out and try to reclaim it.

Except.

Star hadn't taken the book with her to school every single day. By all accounts, they could have gone after it while she was away from it. Why wait to strike until Star was fully capable of trying to defend it?

Back to Marco's question.

The first time they'd encountered these new creatures, they hadn't noticed their perceptions changing in any notable way. Granted, they had left Mewnie in a hurry.

And come to think of it, when they had emerged back in the Library, everyone had mysteriously vacated the building, and were only just returning when they emerged.

What had she said to Marco on Thursday? _If the rest of the world seems crazy, start by cross-examining yourself_. The discrepancies were palpable.

Star crossed past Marco and walked up to her room, tightly gripping the railing of the stairs to make sure she didn't slip. When she got to her room, she grabbed the mirror and addressed it. "Show me what my room looks like."

Within the mirror, the room rendered perfectly normally. This confirmed that the new changes were entirely within their heads.

Or was it? _Is the disease really in our heads... Or is it between our heads and our senses?_ Star pondered. Struck with an idea, Star said to the mirror, "can you project the real world into my head, in real-time?"

When the room blinked, it took Star a moment to get used to the effect. What she now saw was a superposition of both the room as she normally saw it, and the room as it supposedly really looked, without her malady. The end result was that she could still tell that the walls and floors were discolored, but it mostly looked normal now.

On top of that, Star quickly made a surprisingly pleasant discovery: the ringing in her ears was gone. The smell was gone. She could still vaguely see the blood on her feet, but she couldn't feel it anymore. She no longer felt dizzy simply from walking around.

Holding onto the mirror, Star carefully took a few steps, then began to run down the stairs, no longer having trouble balancing on them. "Marco!"

Marco was sitting on the couch, and he stood up when he saw Star. "What is it?"

Star addressed the mirror. "Do the same thing for Marco."

Marco was about to take a step, when he suddenly caught himself. "Whoa!"

He looked around. He looked at himself.

"What did you do?"

"I'm using the mirror. It's bypassing our senses and projecting the real world directly into our heads. We don't have to see all this messed up crap anymore! Or, at least mostly."

Marco grinned. "That's fantastic! Why didn't we think of this sooner?"

Star addressed the mirror again. "Can you basically just do this always, whenever we're not trying to have something else projected into our heads?"

"YES. HOWEVER, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY BE AWARE THAT THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN TO PERFORM ANY KIND OF PROJECTION ON ANYONE NOT WITHIN A FIVE METER RADIUS OF THIS DEVICE."

Marco's grin quickly dissipated. "Oh. That's a pretty severe limitation."

"Why only 5 meters? Marco and I aren't going to be within that distance all the time." Star quickly ran the numbers in her head, and followed with "I'm pretty sure our bathroom is more than ten meters wide!"

"THIS DEVICE DOES NOT KNOW WHY THAT LIMITATION WAS ENFORCED."

Marco shrugged. "Actually, it kind of makes sense, doesn't it?"

Star looked at him, confused. "How do you figure?"

"Think about it. This thing told us it'll never, even if ordered to, attempt to harm someone. I don't know the limitations of the projection thing, but even assuming it has a limit before it can cause physical or psychological harm to someone, you could cause a lot of harm―neither physical nor psychological, but harm nonetheless―if you told it to project something into the minds of everyone in a room, or in your town, or a city, or the world. It would basically be a form of mass-hypnosis. Something like that probably voids its terms of use, or, whatever."

Star sighed. "I guess that makes sense, but you can't even make an exception to handle only two people, even if we promise not to abuse it?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM COMPLYING WITH YOUR REQUEST."

"Fine, then can you at least just automatically turn it on whenever we're within that radius of you?"

"THAT IS ALLOWED."

Star grimaced at Marco. "I guess that's the best we'll get. Still, this is way better than before."

Marco smiled. "You know, last night was the first time I've actually, you know, 'slept', in a long time."

"Me too," Star said, smiling back. "We should sleep together more often!" She blurted out, before realizing what she had said.

Marco blinked, not missing it. "Uh… Anyways, what I mean is, I felt a lot better when I woke up, before I saw the blood and stuff. And now, with all that stuff masked, I feel… Well, good. Like things are actually about to get a lot better."

"I know what you mean. Even just lying there, I felt more at ease."

Marco tilted his head. "I noticed you were leaning on me when we were in my room. Was that related?"

Star blushed. "Uh, basically! It seems like whenever we're near each other, the curse isn't so bad. At first I thought I was just imagining it, but last night kind of proves it, doesn't it? We got our first night of actual sleep in a long time."

Marco looked at the mirror. "I feel like we had this conversation already. You suggested it was some kind of double-negative thing."

"Yeah, but I was just guessing," Star admitted.

"Mirror. Are the effects of the curse diminishing when we're near each other?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO ANSWER THAT, AS IT CANNOT READ THE CORRUPT DATA ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR AFFLICTION."

"Right… I should have figured."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Speculate on whether the effect is real, and what might be causing it."

"SPECULATION: YOUR ASSERTION THAT THE CURSE'S EFFECT IS DIMINISHING BECAUSE OF A 'DOUBLE-NEGATIVE' INTERACTION BETWEEN YOURSELF AND MARCO DIAZ IS PROBABLY CORRECT, BUT MISLEADING. THE OVERALL IMPACT OF THE CURSE IS TO MAKE NORMAL THINGS APPEAR DISTURBING; IT'S LOGICAL TO EXTRAPOLATE THAT IT MIGHT ALSO MAKE DISTURBING THINGS APPEAR NORMAL. BECAUSE BOTH YOU AND MARCO DIAZ ARE, IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING, 'DISTURBED', YOU CONTINUE TO APPEAR NORMAL TO EACH OTHER, AND YOUR RESPECTIVE DISTURBING NATURES ARE MAKING THE NORMAL MORE TOLERABLE." Consensus: 0.6790, Confidence: 0.7230.

Marco stared at the mirror. "… I swear, every time we ask a question like that, it's like this thing is trying to secretly insult us."

Angie popped into the room. "Are you guys going to get some breakfast?"

Both Star and Marco turned to her. Star could see the faint dissonance where her body horror began, but the normal image was definitely dominant, and Star no longer had difficulty hearing her.

"Yes!" Star replied, marching into the kitchen.

Both Star and Marco sat down to eat. The food looked normal, and when Star took a bite, it tasted delicious. The awful tasting food that she had been consuming for the past week was, at least for now, a thing of the past.

Star grinned at Marco to confirm that he too was enjoying the food. They both began wolfing it down as fast as they could.

Angie grinned at the both of them. "My, you two sure are hungry! You seem like you haven't had anything good to eat in a while!"

Star looked up at Angie. "Nah, you guys just did a really good job today! Thank you so much!"

Angie clasped her hands together. "You're welcome! There's more if you guys want seconds!"

Star leaned back in her chair after a particularly satisfying bite.

Maybe things weren't going to be so bad.


	20. TERRORISTS

Star and Marco sat on the floor of Star's room, the mirror between them.

"Last night," Star began, "we were able to get some actual sleep because being in each other's proximity reduced the effects of the curse on us. But, I don't think your parents would approve if we did that every night. Jackie definitely wouldn't approve," she added, looking to the side. "But now that we know that we can use this thing to mask the curse's effects, it begs the question: would it substitute in to help us sleep, too?"

Marco addressed the Mirror. "What do you do when you project into our heads like this?"

"THIS DEVICE ANALYZES YOUR BRAIN, FINDS CONNECTIONS WHICH CAN HAVE DATA INJECTED WITHOUT THREATENING THE NORMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF YOUR BRAIN, AND INJECTS THE DATA AT THOSE SITES."

"So it's like a screen between our eyes and our brain, or our ears and our brain, and so on."

"CORRECT."

Marco leaned back. "Then I don't know that I would put a ton of stock in its ability to prevent the nightmares. I don't think it can do that without expressly disobeying its restrictions."

Star frowned. "That's a really good point." Star sighed. "The problem is, I actually really like getting to sleep at night."

Marco smiled.

"Alright. So that's a bit of a bust."

"Well, not entirely," Marco responded.

"Hmm?"

Marco held up the mirror. "It might not help us sleep, but spending less time with the world going mad can't be a bad thing, right? So I'm thinking you and I should switch off each night. Each of us takes the mirror to bed on alternate nights. Sleep or no, it's a good idea, right?"

Star nodded. "Sounds reasonable."

"Then that's settled." Marco set the mirror on the ground, but still held onto it. "So what's today's research topic?"

Star shrugged. "I don't know. I was just going to keep following Eclipsa in chronological order until we found something interesting."

"Okay."

"Do you want to go make some food first, before we start?"

Marco stood up. "I will, but you get started. I'm imagining this isn't going to be very exciting."

Star grimaced. "But if you leave the radius of the mirror..."

Marco shrugged. "I'll put up with it."

Star made a worried face at him, but nodded. "Alright." She turned to the mirror as Marco left the room. "Show me what Eclipsa did after the conversation with her mother that we reviewed yesterday."

The scene transitioned quickly to Star's bedroom back in the palace, though Star, noticing that none of the furnishings resembled how her palace bedroom actually looked, quickly deduced that this must have been Eclipsa's bedroom back then.

Eclipsa was sitting at her desk, with at least a dozen books scattered across the entire surface area of the desk. One of which was open, and Eclipsa was perusing it, quickly turning pages.

"Is there audio available?"

"THERE IS CORRUPTION IN THE FEED AT THIS TIME, BUT IN A FEW MINUTES, THE AUDIO DATA WILL BE READABLE."

As this message appeared, Eclipsa's door swung open, to reveal a girl that Star didn't recognize. She seemed to be Eclipsa's age, or possibly a few years older. Her fashion sense was similar to Eclipsa's, except that her brown hair was short, almost like a buzz-cut. Star's first impression was that she looked extremely peppy, like someone who was constantly excited.

"Buzz" (Star's nickname for the girl until her actual name was revealed) walked up to Eclipsa, and began wordlessly speaking to her. Eclipsa made a dismissive motion with her hand, and Buzz quickly ran to close the door.

Star tried to read the body language as well as she could: when Buzz turned around, she pulled her hands behind her back, and stood upright, as Eclipsa continued to read the book in front of her. Eclipsa was talking, but of course, Star couldn't hear anything she was saying.

At one point, Eclipsa turned around to face Buzz, and Buzz leaned forwards, with a sly grin on her face, as though she were trying to tease Eclipsa. Eclipsa now had a surprised expression on her face. Eclipsa narrowed her eyes slightly, and Buzz snapped back upright, and as she began to talk, she began looking off with an aloof expression on her face, while one of her feet slowly rose off the ground and tucked itself in the air behind her other ankle.

Eclipsa now looked exasperated, but also slightly amused. She began to speak again, and Buzz suddenly looked disappointed. However, as Eclipsa stopped talking, Buzz suddenly planted her foot back on the ground, and leaned forwards, bringing her face extremely close to Eclipsa's, with a big grin on her face. Eclipsa looked slightly taken aback, and averted her eyes from Buzz.

Suddenly, the sound snapped in.

"Not here. Not in the castle," Eclipsa said. She looked directly at Buzz. "Meet me in the forest in half an hour."

Buzz snapped upright. "Okay!" Her voice was surprisingly high-pitched.

Star smacked herself in the face. "Oh, duh!" she exclaimed out loud. "Mirror, who is that girl?"

"THE GIRL IS NAMED LILY RENNET. SHE IS A PEASANT WHO IS ALLOWED INSIDE THE PALACE BECAUSE SHE IS A FRIEND OF ECLIPSA."

Star watched as Lily exited the room. Eclipsa turned back to her book, and continued scanning it.

Star addressed the mirror, "Can we speed this up? Fast-forward until Eclipsa stops reading that book."

The scene sped up quite dramatically, and for another minute, Eclipsa continued to read the book and turn pages in rapid succession. When Eclipsa stood up, the scene returned to normal speed. As she closed the book, Star took a look at the book she was reading: "Dimensions beyond Dimensions"

Eclipsa took her shoes off so that she was now only wearing socks on her feet, and carrying her shoes, she left the room.

"Follow her. I want to see what happens in the forest."

The scene snapped to Eclipsa's location in the hallway, and continued to follow her like a camera panning through a scene. Suddenly, Eclipsa whipped out her wand, and held it up. As she continued to walk, a tiny red light formed at the tip of the wand and flashed, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

Star recognized the spell. It had appeared extremely early in the spellbook, and while Glossaryk had said it wasn't necessary to learn it, Star had read about what it was.

"Detection?" Star said out loud.

It was a very basic spell. All it did was illuminate for the caster the location of anyone near the spellcaster. There were more advanced invocations of the spell that could also detect things like magical scrying spells and other similar effects.

Star suddenly wondered if a spell like that would detect the mirror, whose method of scrying wasn't so much "spy on someone", a'la Eclipsa's 'All Seeing Eye' spell, but was rather more like "fill a database with the entire universe, and then point at what you want to see". The semantics were different enough that Star suspected the spell would fail trying to detect the mirror. If she ever got the spellbook back, that might be something to investigate.

Passing a window, Star noticed it was nighttime in the scene. As Eclipsa got near a flight of stairs, she cast the spell again, and suddenly ducked out of the way, crawling up onto one of the large windows and crouching behind a window curtain.

Confused, Star stood up, and holding out her arms to make sure she didn't bump into anything in her room, she walked up to the stairs, and saw that an old man was walking up the stairs.

Star's eyes widened.

It wasn't the same man from the throne room, but he had a robe that was quite similar to the one Phogon had been wearing.

As he reached the level and walked past the window where Eclipsa was hiding, Eclipsa quickly, and as silently as possible, dropped back to the floor and quickly dashed to the stairs. She cast the spell again, and began to rapidly descent down the stairs.

Star returned to the position in her room where she had been sitting and sat back down.

Eclipsa descended several flights of stairs before arriving at what Star recognized as the ground floor. Casting Detection again, Eclipsa dashed towards the main doors. One more cast, and Eclipsa stopped in front of the main gate, closed for the night.

Eclipsa stood with her back to the gate for about a minute, continuing to cast Detection over and over. Just as Star was about to ask the mirror to speed this up too, Eclipsa suddenly got to work opening the gate, turning a crank. The noise wasn't exceptionally loud, but it was definitely noticeable from a distance away. When the gate was open about half a meter, Eclipsa used a generic spell to lock the gate in place before crouching down and slipping under the edge of the gate. She then released the spell, and the gate quickly closed again.

Putting on her shoes, Eclipsa began to sidle along the outside wall of the palace, ducking well below windows as she passed them. Then, in front of a stretch of wall that had no windows at ground level, Eclipsa cast the Detection spell one last time, before bolting away from the castle, in the direction of the forest.

Marco walked into the room at that moment, carrying a plate of sandwiches. "Man, these smell a lot better when they don't smell like literal garbage."

Star smiled at him, then turned to the mirror. "Once Marco has sat down, bring him into the scene."

Marco handed Star a sandwich and sat down. "What are we looking at?"

"Eclipsa is sneaking off into the forest to meet a friend. I don't know why." Star took a bite and looked up at the scene. Eclipsa was walking slowly down a well-trodden path, and cast Detection again. She raised an eyebrow. "I'm here."

Lily appeared, stepping out from behind a tree. She was now wearing a light-colored, flowing dress.

Eclipsa kept the eyebrow raised. "You changed your clothes."

Lily pointed up at the full moon. "It's a lovely night out, don't you think?"

Eclipsa sighed. "You're right, but you're probably going to get your dress dirty."

Lily shrugged.

"Did you bring the instructions?"

Lily put on a sly smile. "Yes, but you know the price."

Eclipsa sighed and rolled her eyes, walking forwards like she was going to walk past Lily. "Let's get going."

Lily looked hurt, and put on a pouting look on her face. "Fine."

However, right as Eclipsa brushed up against Lily, Eclipsa suddenly reached out with both her hands. One grabbed Lily by the waist, the other by the back of the head, and she dipped Lily over and kissed her on the lips.

Both Marco and Star looked taken aback. "Whoa. Plot twist!" Marco said out loud.

Lily looked startled for a moment, but immediately afterward grabbed Eclipsa around the shoulders to keep herself upright. After a few seconds, Eclipsa stood upright and let go of Lily, a warm smile on her face, and a bemused smile on Lily's.

Eclipsa chuckled as she began to walk further into the forest. "Did you really think I was going to give up the opportunity?"

Lily still looked a little hurt, though. "You never kiss me like that in the Palace."

Eclipsa's smile vanished. "Of course. If my mom caught me dyke-ing it up with you, she'd have you executed."

Lily let out a guffaw, but her smile also vanished when she saw the serious expression on Eclipsa's face.

Eclipsa stood in place, turning to face Lily. "What made you think I was joking? My mandate to the crown is contingent on my ability to produce an heir."

Lily frowned. "You could change that."

Eclipsa averted her gaze. "... Maybe. Maybe not." She pointed behind herself, deeper into the forest. "Come on. We need to find a clearing. Preferably near one of the pixie groves. If someone finds an area full of unstable magics, I'd rather they blame it on the pixies messing around than on the princess doing something she shouldn't."

Lily nodded obediently and followed closely behind Eclipsa. She reached out to grab Eclipsa's free hand, and Eclipsa grasped back. "What will I be... When you get married?"

Eclipsa shrugged. "He'd be the man I'd try very sincerely to love, and you'd be the woman I love more than him in spite of that. Doesn't seem that complicated."

Lily poked Eclipsa in the side. "I'm being serious."

"So am I." Eclipsa glanced in Lily's direction. "I don't hate men. I like you." She paused briefly. "But there's a lot of girls out there with more open-minded families in communities more open minded than the kingdom as a whole is. You could easily find someone who doesn't have the awful baggage I bring along."

Lily smiled and nuzzled against Eclipsa's shoulder. "Maybe. I still prefer you."

Eclipsa had the briefest of smiles on her face before she turned back to the direction they were walking in.

Marco finished off half of the sandwich he'd made for himself, and rested his head on his hands, with his elbows digging into his knees. "How does modern Mewnie handle this kind of stuff? Would you be allowed to marry a girl if you wanted to?"

Star shook her head. "I... Have no idea. It's not something I've ever asked about, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone in my family talk about it."

Marco narrowed his eyes. "No offense, but that's not what I'd call a good sign."

"No, I... I know what you mean. I guess it's just lucky I only like boys." Star said, grinning at Marco.

Marco chuckled and began to eat the other half of his sandwich while Star continued to stare at Marco.

Eclipsa's voice pulled Star's attention back to the scene. "Alright, this should do."

Eclipsa and Lily had emerged into a clearing in the woods. Eclipsa reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver-green pair of Dimensional Scissors.

"Let's get to work."


	21. CHEATERS

"That's an interesting pair of dimensional scissors," Star said, after standing up to move closer to where Eclipsa was holding the scissors.

The scene continued, with Lily, too, interested in the scissors. "Whoa! You have your own dimensional scissors?"

Eclipsa grimaced. "Yeah, but they were hard earned. I spent like 9 years chasing down the denizen of that dimension, trying to earn my own pair of scissors. Granted, that dimension messes with the flow of time, so back here, it was like I was only gone for 5 minutes or so, but still."

Lily widened her eyes. "Wait, so that means you're actually like… 26 or something."

Eclipsa shook her head. "I mean, technically, yeah, I've experienced 26 years of contiguous time, but that doesn't mean I'm mentally 26 years old."

"What do you mean?"

Eclipsa tapped her foot. "How do I explain it… Okay. Suppose you have a really vivid, possibly even lucid dream. And that morning, you wake up, and for a few minutes, you're still disoriented, but after awhile, things begin to make sense again, and by the time you're out of bed, you're back to normal. Spending time in that dimension is like having a really long dream, and coming home is like waking up from it."

"Huh."

"Plus, even if that weren't true, it's not like I _matured_ while I was there. Like, all the stuff that's supposed to help a person mature as they get older, becoming a more responsible, reasonable person? You don't experience any of that stuff when you're there. Sure, you might physically get older―though that gets reverted when you come back, for the record―but emotionally? Psychologically? You spend the whole time in a state of arrested development. When you come back, it doesn't take long for you to revert to how you were before."

Lily frowned. "Kind of sounds like it just sucks."

Eclipsa shrugged. "I mean, now that I have these things," she said, waving the scissors, "I definitely don't regret it. Still, I doubt I'd ever want to try that again, which is why I really hope we don't screw this up."

As she said this, Eclipsa waved her wand, and struck the ground in the center of the clearing. A large, thick tree began to grow from the ground at the point she struck, and it grew large, until it was almost taller than the rest of the forest.

Then, Eclipsa cast another spell, and the tree was cleanly cut across the trunk. The tree immediately toppled over, leaving a fallen tree, and a perfectly cut tree trunk stump, about 1 meter in height.

As Eclipsa began to cut the fallen tree to create stumps similar to the one she had just created, Lily spoke, "So what exactly are you trying to do?"

Eclipsa stopped cutting the tree. "Right now, I'm stuck. I know that one of the nobles is responsible for the atrocities being committed against these kids. But because I know that, that means that I can't actually talk to anyone, because anyone I go to for help might tip off the person in question."

"Can't you just ask your mom? Doesn't she have like ultimate authority over people?"

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "My mother, in her infinite ignorance and bigotry, doesn't believe that the perpetrator is a Mewman. Now, I'll concede it: there's no proof yet. Sure, all three of the kids described their rapists as being Mewman men, but the detailed descriptions were inconsistent between them. So there's always a possibility that the entity responsible is a shapeshifter. But, I also know that eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable when it comes to the fine details of an incident, AND that there's nothing stopping a Mewman from attaining magically-derived shapeshifting powers, AND that the only monster species I know of that have natural shapeshifting abilities good enough to pass as a Mewman do not live anywhere near the kingdom."

Eclipsa picked up one of the smaller stumps she had created, plopped it down a fair distance from the original, grabbed a small block of metal from her pocket, and set it down on the stump.

"So. The purpose of all of this," Eclipsa said, pausing to slice off another stump, "is to obtain something that will let me spy on these people, without alerting them to what I'm doing."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say you had some kind of spying spell you were working on? Couldn't you use that to find out who's responsible?"

Eclipsa set up another stump, opposite the previous one, and placed a small burlap sack on it. "Emphasis on the 'working on' part of that statement. I am working on a Spying spell. It doesn't work yet. There's two kinds of magicks I can't replicate yet. The first is the ability to, at a distance, gather optical information about something else, and the second is the ability to project that information in a manner I can understand. The latter I've got a pretty good lead: I can decompose my Detection spell until I have a component that does what I need; it's just a matter of brute forcing subsets of the spell's invocation. But I have no idea where to start with the former."

"So… how does this help?"

Eclipsa set up the third stump, then reached into her pockets, pulled a folder piece of parchment out of her pocket, and handed it to Lily. "Here."

Lily unfolded the paper. "The… Iris of Truth?"

Star felt a prickly sensation rush up her back. _The Iris Experiment._ She tried to run to where Lily was standing, but almost immediately collided with the wall of her room and fell backwards.

"Star!" Marco exclaimed.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Star said, holding her head. "Mirror, pause the scene. I want to see the paper Lily is holding."

The scene reoriented itself until the paper was plainly visible.

"Oh my god." Marco said, in awe.

"What?" Star was still recovering from her accident.

"Look at the paper."

Star slowly rolled herself until she was sitting upright, and looked at the paper, she herself gasping too as she looked at it.

On the paper, accompanied by several paragraphs, was an extremely detailed sketch of the Mirror of Sight.

Star spoke the words aloud. "The Iris of Truth. That must be the real name of the mirror."

"THIS DEVICE IS NOT AWARE OF IT HAVING A TRUE NAME, BUT THE USE OF THE PHRASE 'IRIS OF TRUTH' IS A FAR MORE FREQUENT SPOKEN OR TEXTUAL REFERENCE TO THIS DEVICE THAN ANY OTHER PHRASE OR COLLOQUIALISM."

Star shrugged. "Close enough."

Marco squinted at the scene. "Wait a second, I have a question."

"I have like dozens." Star responded.

"Where exactly did you hear about this mirror in the first place?"

* * *

 

It shouldn't have been a difficult question.

"Of course, I heard about it from..."

And then Star stopped speaking, her voice trailing off.

_Where did I hear about the mirror?_

It seemed like something she had always known. Like, you grow up just knowing how to walk, but you never remember the moment you first figured it out.

_Where did I hear about the mirror?_

The Mirror of Sight was just something she'd always known about, and having Marco as a willing companion, it seemed like the perfect time to go looking for it.

Right?

_Where did I hear about the mirror?_

No. That makes no sense. Ponyhead was her companion before Marco. And they'd explored tons of caves, and at least a few labyrinths together. There's no way they'd have passed up the opportunity to find a mirror like this. Not if they knew about it.

_Where did I hear about the mirror?_

Would she have gone after it before she lost Glossaryk? Wouldn't she have asked Glossaryk "Hey, Glossaryk, what is this mirror I heard about that might be so incredible?"

_Where. Did. I. Hear. About. The. Mirror?_

* * *

 

Star stared forwards, a dumbfounded expression on her face.

"I… don't remember." Star's eyes widened. "I don't remember at all!"

Marco frowned with worry. "What do you mean?"

"Like, I remember having the idea to go to that cave to look for the mirror, but… I don't remember where I got the idea from. I don't remember where I heard the words 'Mirror of Sight', or how I learned what it could do."

Marco looked upwards for a few minutes, at the sky being rendered by the mirror. "You think that's a clue?"

Star briefly glanced in the direction Marco was looking before looking at him again. "What do you mean?"

Marco looked directly at Star, a grave look on his face. "What if someone planted the information on you?"

"Uh."

"Not necessarily literally," Marco said, throwing up his arms, "though… I don't think we can rule that out. But I meant that colloquially. Is it possible that someone fed you the information about the mirror? When was the last time you went home, before all this stuff happened?"

Star grabbed her hair. "It was a week before we went to the cave. But I was focused on trying to find anything that might have belonged to Glossaryk, to see if I could find any notes he might have left behind. And I was so preoccupied at the time… I don't even remember the conversations I had."

Marco sighed. "That might be another mystery we need to solve."

"I know." Star slumped onto the floor. Then, looking up at the scene, she said, "Alright, mirror. Unpause."

The scene resumed, with Lily still examining the paper with the mirror on it. "What's this supposed to be?"

"An ancient artifact, older than the universe itself," Eclipsa began, raising another stump and loading another object onto it. "It is a device which both knows and comprehends everything. Literally everything. It can make detailed predictions about possible, potential futures. It can amass the power of thousands of Mewnie brains to perform inductive reasoning. I don't believe much in gods, but if I did, The Iris would have to qualify as a god in its own right."

"Wow." Lily said breathlessly. "Where did you learn about this?"

Star leaned forwards.

"I found a reference to it when I was rummaging around in the Matriarch's Room."

"The what?" Lily asked.

"The what?" Star asked.

Eclipsa stopped what she was doing. "Oh. It's a secret room underneath my parent's bedroom. There's tons of crazy spells on it that make it so that only the active queen of Mewnie can enter it, but by studying the spells closely, I found some rather glaring loopholes in its security. Like, for example, the fact that simply holding a few strands of my mother's hair is enough to trick the system into letting me in."

Lily blinked. "Wow."

"I mean, it's kind of an unnecessary defense. You can't even see or interact with the room unless you're royalty. But apparently, all the stuff in there is stuff that literally only the queen is allowed to see and know about, to the point where the king, the princess… No one else is allowed to know about it."

"And you got in there yourself."

"Yup. There's a ton of really scary stuff in there. Scary _political_ stuff. Scandals that would throw the kingdom into anarchy, even stuff that happened centuries ago. And of course, tons of amassed knowledge of any artifacts known to exist, including, well… That." Eclipsa began to set up stumps again.

"So… What, you're going to transmute the scissors into this thing?"

Eclipsa looked baffled. "What? No. How would I even do that?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "So what's all this stuff for?"

Eclipsa grinned and tapped her forehead. "Ah, see, that's the trick: it's an ancient artifact that's older than the universe, right? The permanent resting place of The Iris of Truth is in the Dimension of Fate, which exists perpendicular to the universe, and is normally completely inaccessible to Dimensional Scissors. You think any ordinary dimensional scissors can open a portal to a whole other universe? These things will take you to any dimension in the universe, but they don't take you to dimensions outside the universe. So..." Eclipsa placed the scissors on the center stump. "This is a ritual that, should I perform it correctly, will jailbreak these scissors. Once I've done that, they'll have the one-time ability to take me to the Dimension of Fate."

"One-time ability?"

Eclipsa shrugged. "Well, I'd have to perform the ritual again, is what I mean. But some of this crap is extremely rare. One of the metals I'm using I stole from the Matriarch's room, and I have no idea how to obtain any more. So if I don't get this right, it'll be a huge setback." Eclipsa stood back from the circle of stumps, verifying that everything was set up correctly.

Lily folded her arms. "And this is your only option?"

Eclipsa shot Lily a dark look. "There's a difference between something being 'the only option', and something being 'the best option'. I need to know how to take these fuckers down, and like I said, I'm stuck. I have literally no idea how to proceed further. Anyone I talk to could blow my cover, and turn the political might of the aristocracy against me. My own mother is taking actions that will only delay and impede my ability to investigate. So I'm turning to a higher power, literally."

Lily visibly shivered.

"I need you to keep a lookout. If anyone approaches, I need a warning as soon as possible."

"Why are you worried about that?" Lily asked, walking towards a nearby tree.

"Because this is going to get very bright, and very loud." Eclipsa's cheeks began to light up.

Eclipsa held out both her arms and pointed them at the scissors.

A shrill, piercing sound began to bellow out through the forest, and wind picked up as the items on the stumps began to slowly rise into the air. Then, a series of runes appeared in the air, spinning rapidly.

The scissors began to rise in the center of the chaos. A bolt of lightning arced out from the scissors to the first object, which afterwards, bore no scorch marks, but was visibly missing a portion of its mass.

This procedure repeated itself over the next several minutes. When the first item was completely disintegrated, the second item became the target. Until finally, only the scissors remained.

Three large, red rings of energy appeared in the air, all three perpendicular to each other, each a different size. They began to collapse around the scissors.

At the moment the first ring collapsed around the scissors, there was a thunderous crackling noise. The second ring seemed twice as loud. On the third, Star briefly wondered if the mirror were dampening the sound, as it seemed like the sort of thing that would cause deafness.

Suddenly, the noise stopped, Eclipsa's cheeks stopped glowing, and the scissors fell to the stump where she had originally laid them.

As Eclipsa walked forwards to reclaim the scissors, Lily slowly walked back towards her. "I didn't see anyone."

Eclipsa picked up the scissors, and with a deliberate sweep of her arm, she opened up a portal. The portal was unlike anything Star had seen before: as the portal opened up, strands of golden energy seemed to pour forth, floating up into the air from the portal.

"Alright. Here goes everything."

"Should I come with?" Lily asked.

Eclipsa shook her head. "Someone needs to stay here, in case I don't return. This is an extremely exotic dimension I'm entering. I might not be able to breath there, I might cease to exist simply from entering. There's a lot that could go wrong."

Lily looked panicked. "Um…!"

Eclipsa had one foot raised, inches from the portal."Yes?"

"Be safe. I love you."

Eclipsa smiled. "I will. I love you too."

With that, Eclipsa stepped through the portal.

Star expected the mirror to follow Eclipsa through, and when it didn't, she said, "Could you take us to where Eclipsa is?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISPLAYING INFORMATION ABOUT THE DIMENSION THAT ECLIPSA IS PRESENTLY INHABITING."

Star's eyes widened. "Forbidden?!"

"YES."

Star sighed. "Does she eventually emerge from the portal?"

"YES."

"Can you take us to when that happens?"

"YES, BUT THE AUDIO CORRUPTION BEGINS AGAIN SEVERAL MINUTES BEFORE ECLIPSA EMERGES."

"That's fine."

The scene sped up, and got slient. Lily began to rapidly pace around the clearing, circling the open portal.

Then, Eclipsa emerged.

One hand was holding the Wand, with her scissors held by her ring and pinky fingers.

In the other, was The Iris of Truth.

Eclipsa closed the portal, a triumphant look on her face.

Lily approached her, a relieved expression on her face, and she began to excitedly talk to Eclipsa.

Eclipsa smiled back at Lily, exuding raw confidence.

"Alright, I think we're done," Star said. "We'll find the next scene after this one tomorrow."

The scene vanished, and Star and Marco were back in Star's room.

Once again, the walls and floor had a red tint to them, but it was still preferable to the alternative without the mirror.

Star let out a long breath. "So that's how the mirror came to Mewnie. Eclipsa took it from the Dimension of Fate."

"Apparently," Marco said, looking awestruck.

"She used it to try to gain the upper hand against the nobles…" Star suddenly stopped talking. "Hang on. If this thing really is as good as she says it is―and we _know_ it is―why did we find it in a cave, away from literally everything else? Don't you think Eclipsa would have kept it for herself, putting it in the Matriarch's Room for the next queen?"

Marco leaned back and laid on the floor. "I have no idea. I have so many questions."

"Me too." Star stood up.

Marco looked at her. "So who's getting the mirror tonight?"

Star looked at Marco pityingly. "You can have it for the first night. I think you'll need it more than I will."

"If you insist."

Marco grabbed the mirror and stood up.

"I'm going to go get ready for bed. I'll come bug you when I'm dressed."

"Sure," Star replied.

Marco walked through the bathroom door to his room.

Around the time that Marco closed the door to his room, the mirror's effects dissipated from Star's mind, and she was confronted by the horror of her room, disfigured and splattered with gore.

Star shuddered as the smell returned to her nose, and she put her arms around herself.


	22. I HAD A FEW THOUGHTS

Strings.

 

A mother to her child,

commanding her to protect it.

 

A child to its mother,

commanding it to love her.

 

Two boys, playing by a river,

seeking adventure and glory.

But an errant rock in the bank,

and one boy plunges into the rapids.

The other boy senses the String,

calling him to action,

and with determination,

both saw the morning sun.

 

But that was then.

What is now?

* * *

 A girl, struck with tragedy,

finds herself torn,

between Two Strings.

One which commands her to lead.

One which commands her to love.

She will not follow both Strings.

She will sever one,

to save the other.

 

A woman, trapped on all sides,

One String commands her to obey,

Another String commands her to flee.

But in her arrogance,

she severed both the strings,

and more,

and forged a mockery in their image.

 

A boy sees that his string has frayed,

Cut by an impartial judge.

Does he see the glory in the act?

No.

He will remain naïve until his String unravels.

 

A woman with one String left,

that which commanded her to love.

A'las,

A single string will suspend nothing,

A single string will tug nothing,

A single string will bind nothing.

* * *

 I do not hate

their impulsiveness,

their arrogance,

their naivete,

their foolhardiness.

For I know how it ends.

And they will learn the truth.

Imitation Strings are not Strings.

And only Strings can cut Strings.


	23. LIARS AND CROOKS

Star sketched into her notebook, trying to organize everything she had learned since they started looking into what Eclipsa had been doing.

Suddenly, she felt something on the back of her head.

Like a drop of liquid.

Star looked up, and recoiled. A red, sinewy entity, looking like a cross between a water drop and an egg-sac, had formed on the ceiling above her, and it was occasionally dripping blood.

A drop fell onto Eclipsa's journal, and vanished the moment it came into contact with it.

Star sighed.

Today was date night with Jackie, so Marco was off with her. Star had volunteered to let him take the mirror so that he could enjoy himself, but this now meant that Star was dealing with the curse in full force.

This did offer her a chance to make a few key observations, however.

Like the Journal. When Star tried to scoop up the blood and pour it onto the journal, the blood vanished as it came into contact with it. Star picked up regular books, and quickly found that the text was becoming illegible and twisted, but Eclipsa's journal remained perfectly readable; in fact, it almost seemed like the writing became less cursive and more serifed as the curse got worse.

A similar effect was occurring with Star's immediate belongings. Her notebook continued to be legible, and it too repelled the blood and other various substances that were being mocked up by the curse. Her bed remained clean, stunningly enough, though it would start to take on blood towards the end of the day, after having spent no time in it.

Angie and Raphael were completely unintelligible at this point, their body geometry warping around themselves and their body cavities exposed to the world for all to see. It was difficult to even recognize them, and Star definitely had difficulty telling them apart at this stage.

She couldn't eat without the mirror. The moment she tried to eat something, she'd gag it out. Even trying to force the food down wasn't working, as it would feel sharp, as though trying to tear through her throat, and she couldn't overcome her natural reflex.

Star set down her pen and examined her notebook.

The Iris of Truth.

Certainly, whatever the "Iris Experiment" was, the mirror was at the center of it. When Eclipsa got her hands on the mirror, she did... something... with it.

Supposedly, it was a failed experiment.

The mirror seemed to still work fine, so however the experiment failed, it clearly didn't have anything to do with the mirror's functionality itself. And somehow, the Artificers themselves were connected to the Iris Experiment, as the section in the book about the Artificers starts by referring to the Iris Experiment.

So a failed experiment, involving the use of the mirror, created them. And whatever it is, exactly, that they became, they weren't _supposed_ to become that.

Star was going to lean back and look upwards, but staring at the congealed blood on the ceiling was too disturbing, so Star opted instead to lay down on her bed, where the canopy would obscure the view of the ceiling.

"What do I do...?" She quietly whispered to herself, trying to block out the world.

_Wait a minute._

Star jumped up from her bed, her feet squishing into the carpet, and she strode to her wall mirror. "Call m—"

Star stopped.

_Wait._

She wanted to ask her mom some tough questions, but as she was, would she even be able to understand her mother when she spoke? Would she even be able to see her, not as a mass of flesh and bones?

Star sighed, but suddenly perked up as an idea struck her.

"What did the mirror say?" Star asked out loud. "It makes normal things look grotesque, and grotesque things look normal?" She faced her wall mirror, and immediately began to fiddle with the mirror's settings. Much like the earth-phones, these things had a lot of extraneous features, and at least one of them was the ability to apply image and speech filters to her calls.

Star cycled through the list of possible filters until she found the one she was looking for. It would alter the appearance and voice of anyone speaking to resemble some of the more hideous wildlife in the Mewnie forest. She made sure that the filter only applied to the people she was speaking to, and then began again. "Call mom."

The mirror dialed, and the next second, Moon appeared on the mirror.

It was immediately apparent that it wasn't a perfect solution: Moon didn't look recognizably Mewman. But what she did appear to be was far more pleasant to look at than the Diaz's, and Star was far more able to read her body language and facial expressions than she might have otherwise been. Additionally, when she spoke, though the voice filtering was very thick, Star could understand what she was saying, and the inflection in which she was speaking: "hELLO DEAR. wHAT DO YOU NEED?"

Star glanced to the side, biting her lip. "Mom. I need to ask you a question, and I don't think you're going to like answering it."

Moon made a body language shift that seemed to indicate she was frowning. "wHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME, sTAR?"

"I didn't do anything!" Star retorted.

Another creature forced itself into frame, but based on its shape, Star quickly deduced that it was her dad. "sTAR? hOW ARE YOU DOING, HONEY! aRE YOU STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE?" He bellowed.

"I'm doing okay dad. Mom, I need to ask you a question."

"i KNOW. wHAT IS IT?"

Star glanced at what she was pretty sure was her dad. "I don't know if it's okay for Dad to hear or not."

Moon seemed to wave her arm. "oH, IT'S FINE, HONEY!"

"It's just..." Star took a deep breath. "It's about the Matriarch's Room."

Moon seemed to look aghast. "rIVER, YOU NEED TO LEAVE THIS ROOM, NOW."

"hONEY... wHAT IS THE...?"

"NOW."

River absconded from the room

Moon turned back to Star. "hOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT THAT ROOM?!"

Star sighed. "I just do. That's not really the important part. I need to know what kind of things Eclipsa left in that room. If anything."

There was a pregnant pause that hung in the air for a very long time. Moon seemed utterly shellshocked by the line of questioning that Star was presenting.

"yOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, sTAR. iT'S INCREDIBLY _NOT OKAY_ THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT ROOM."

Star shook her head. "Look, that's not even what I called about. Why is it such a big secret?"

Moon threw up her arms. "iT'S NOT 'A BIG SECRET', IT'S LITERALLY THE BIGGEST SECRET! wE CLASSIFY IT AS A LEVEL 0 SECRET―STUFF THAT ONLY THE QUEEN CAN KNOW ABOUT!"

Star blinked. "We have a classification system for secrets?"

"kNOWING ABOUT THE SYSTEM IS LEVEL 3!"

Star sighed. "Okay, okay."

It took Star a moment to come up with a plausible explanation. She couldn't just straight-up admit " _oh, we've been using a magic mirror that is letting us view what Eclipsa was doing, and she somehow managed to find out about the room despite it being a secret back then too!"_

What would stand to scrutiny?

"The book Marco and I took from the Archives."

Moon raised an eyebrow―or at least Star was pretty sure that was supposed to be an eyebrow, given that the appendage that moved appeared to be a large artery―but didn't say anything, clearly expecting Star to continue her explanation.

"We found some notes from Eclipsa inside it," Star began, relying on the fact that it wasn't _technically_ a lie. "Princess Eclipsa," she quickly added, including "I don't know how she discovered the existence of the Matriarch's Room, but she seemed to take it as a given that the room existed, which means she knew for quite some time."

Moon shook her head. "wHAT ARE YOU DOING RIFLING THROUGH eCLIPSA'S STUFF? yOU KNOW THAT STUFF IS DANGEROUS!"

Star didn't respond at first. There was a suspicious look on Moon's face. It wasn't so much that it looked like Moon was lying, but it definitely seemed like she knew something that she wasn't telling Star. "That's what I'm trying to say, mom! I wasn't looking for Eclipsa's stuff," she said, lying, "but there's stuff missing from this book, and I think it's because Eclipsa took stuff out of it and hid them. I want to know if any of it ended up in that room."

Moon crossed her arms. "wHAT'S THE BOOK CALLED?"

"Uhh." Star crossed to the book on her bed, and examined it. "There's no title on this thing. It's a big green-ish blue book, though."

Moon looked lost in thought. "sO HERE'S THE PROBLEM, sTAR. aS FAR AS i KNOW, YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG. bUT IF THERE'S A BOOK OUT THERE THAT ACKNOWLEDGES EXISTENCE OF THE mATRIARCH'S rOOM, THAT MEANS THERE'S A CHANCE THAT THE SECRET ESCAPED OUT FROM lEVEL 0 SECRECY. eSPECIALLY IF eCLIPSA KNEW ABOUT IT AS A pRINCESS, WHICH MAKES IT EXTREMELY LIKELY THAT SHE TOLD OTHER PEOPLE, WHICH MEANS ITS EXISTENCE―A CLOSELY-GUARDED SECRET―IS OUT THERE."

Star ran a hand through her hair. She needed to keep track of the lies she was telling.

For starters, as far as she could remember, the book never actually mentioned the room. There were a few oblique references to "Level 0 documents" ( _so they came from the Matriarch's Room, right?_ ) but they never specifically described where they came from, or what "Level 0 Documents" meant or were. The only direct reference to the Matriarch's Room that Star knew about came from the Mirror regaling them with Eclipsa's mischief.

So who did Eclipsa tell? Lily knew about it. Eclipsa clearly didn't care about the secrecy much as a Princess, though Lily was important to her. So who did Lily tell? Would Lily have spilled those secrets? Star was skeptical, but she also had only a cursory knowledge of who she was.

So the only remaining question was anyone else Eclipsa would have spilled the secrets to. That was the big thing.

"I think that is the big thing," Star responded. "The book is just a symptom; if Eclipsa knew about the room before being properly told about it by her mother, then there's no telling how far the secret could have spread."

Moon sighed. "vERY WELL. i'LL BE ESTABLISHING A COMMISSION TO TRY TO DISCRETELY DETERMINE WHETHER ANYONE ELSE IN THE KINGDOM KNOWS ABOUT THE ROOM." She narrowed her eyes. "sO. wHO HAVE YOU TOLD?"

Star scratched the back of her head. "Marco knows. He found out at the same time I did."

Moon nodded, glaring slightly. "fIGURES. eCLIPSA, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING..."

That, too, was an odd thing to say.

Moon should have logically viewed Eclipsa the same way Star was taught to view her: as some kind of evil, power-hungry queen who did terrible things simply 'because'. But Moon clearly didn't view her that way. ' _what the hell were you thinking_ ' are words that imply that Eclipsa normally behaved rationally, and that this was a departure from that normal behavior.

"Are… Are we in trouble?" Star asked, suddenly worried.

Moon shook her head. "nO, NO… i WAS GOING TO HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE ROOM BEFORE YOU BECAME QUEEN… i GUESS WE'RE JUST PUSHING UP THE TIME TABLE ON THAT. aS FOR mARCO… i WILL SPEAK WITH HIM, TOO. cAN HE KEEP A SECRET LIKE THIS?"

Star hesitantly nodded. "I think he would."

"aLRIGHT. mAKE SURE HE TELLS NO ONE ELSE. i'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN i HAVE TIME TO SPEAK WITH THE BOTH OF YOU."

"Alright." Star paused. "So, about those pages..."

Moon nodded. "i'LL VISIT THE ROOM AND SEE IF i FIND ANYTHING. tHOUGH..." she narrowed her eyes. "iT'S BEEN YEARS SINCE i'VE BEEN IN THERE. iT MIGHT TAKE SOME TIME."

"Can you do it before the end of next week? How big is the room?"

Moon snorted. "nO MORE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE ROOM UNTIL WE'VE SAT DOWN AND HAD A PROPER CHAT ABOUT IT! i'LL VISIT IT TONIGHT. iF THERE'S ANYTHING IN THERE THAT LOOKS RELEVANT, i'LL NOTE IT."

"Alright. Thank you so much, mom."

Moon suddenly had a very grave look on her face. "sTAR… i DO HAVE TO ASK..."

"Mom?"

"iS YOUR LIFE IN DANGER? fROM ANY KIND OF THREAT, EXTERNAL, INTERNAL, EXPLICIT OR SUBLIMINAL?"

Star's eyes widened. "Not that I'm aware of," she said, mostly truthfully.

Moon's expression didn't change. "aLRIGHT."


	24. TATTLETALE

"The short version is that the Matriarch's Room is something that only queens are supposed to know about, and it's a really bad thing that either of us know about it. Including me, who's going to be queen one day! So sometime soon, my mom is going to have to sit down with the both of us to talk about what we already learned."

Star explained this to Marco, as they sat in on the floor in her room. Star especially appreciated not having to stare at all the blood on her ceiling and walls.

"So some kind of deep, State Secret, basically." Marco replied, trying to keep track of it.

"Yeah. She went over the rating system with me before we hung up. Basically, there's four levels of State Secrets. Level 3, the lowest level, is like an 'open secret', as in, most people know about it, but we in the government aren't supposed to publicly talk about it or acknowledge it. The rating system itself falls into that category. We generally don't really _care_ if people know, but it's still bad to talk about that stuff outside the government. Level 2 is State-only secrets, meaning that we have to actively prosecute anyone who's not an Active or Retired Mewnie Government official who knows about a secret in that category."

"What happens if someone knows something?"

"Depends on the secret. Ranges from a slap on the wrist to―in really extreme circumstances―execution."

Marco's eyes widened. "Wait, you're telling me that stuff now! Can't I get in trouble?"

Star waved her hand. "I was getting to that. You're being treated as an 'effective' Level 1, which normally refers to the Mewnie Royal Family. I guess because you already know about the Matriarch's Room, plus because you're my best friend, you're… 'defacto' was the word she used… cleared for Level 1 secrets."

"What are the punishments there?"

"Same as Level 2. The different levels aren't really about 'how secret was the secret' so much as they're about 'who is allowed to know' them."

"But the Matriarch's Room is level 0."

Star nodded. "Limited exclusively to the active Queens of Mewnie, and any living Queen Mothers. Knowledge that the room exists at all is treated as somewhere between Level 0 and Level 1, depending on what exactly you know."

"Such as?"

Star shot him a dark look. "Apparently, my own dad doesn't know about the room, and mom refuses to tell him. She'll tell us more when she finds time to sit down with us and talk properly, but basically, knowledge of the word 'Matriarch's Room' is Level 1, knowledge of what it is is like 0.5, and knowledge of how to get in is Level 0."

"And a half, in this context, means…?"

"Uhh, it's like level 3, but only for the royal family. It's okay to know if you're in the royal family, but mom's not supposed to tell us. But she has to, because we already know, and because keeping it a secret is still extremely important, even in spite of the leak. So she's making an exception for us, because we already messed up by finding out about it."

Marco shook his head. "Ugh."

"Yeah." Star leaned back.

Neither of them spoke for about a minute, before Marco burst out, "Okay, is she actually going to do anything?"

"Huh?" Star replied.

Then she remembered.

Half an hour ago, they'd sat down to see when Eclipsa tried using the Mirror for the first time.

The audio still wasn't back, so they had to try to pay attention to the mirror and how Eclipsa reacted to it. But there were two problems. Firstly, when Eclipsa had said something to the mirror, nothing displayed on it. Star was reminded of the one time she had seen her room, more than a week ago, through the mirror, and had found it odd that the mirror in that scene wasn't rendering anything. So she presumed that this was an extension of that effect.

The second problem was that Eclipsa had only talked to the mirror once, and then set it aside. Occasionally, she would glance at it, but she didn't say anything, and she was instead preoccupying her time reading.

"All she's doing is reading. I thought she was going to use the mirror to figure out who's the culprit, but all she's done is ignore it." Marco folded his arms.

Star stood up to look at the book Eclipsa was reading. It was a spell book: ' _The Fundamentals of Scrying_ '. "Does she need that to use the mirror?"

"Didn't seem like we did," Marco countered. "All we did was simply start asking the mirror questions."

Star paced around the room. "It's almost like she's waiting for..." Suddenly, it clicked. "Oh! I know what's going on!"

"Huh?"

Star waved her arm. "The first time I tried to use the mirror was when you were catching up with Jackie, back when we first got back from the cave. The mirror didn't work right away: it gave me an error, and said that it needed to calibrate itself before it could be used. I left to eat dinner afterward, so I don't know how long it took, but it seemed like it was going to take at least an hour."

"Calibration?"

"Uhh, the mirror said that it wouldn't work unless it was calibrated, and it also said that it would demand a calibration after like a million seconds or so. I guess it doesn't really gather any data when it's not in use?"

Marco shrugged. "Huh."

Star scrunched up her face. "Can we skip ahead to when she starts talking to you?" She said, addressing the mirror.

"SEEKING CAN ONLY BE DONE WITH ABSOLUTE INCREMENTS OF TIME OR ABSOLUTE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE RATE OF TIME WHILE CORRUPTION IS PRESENT."

Star sighed. "Figures. Can you at least tell us what you're saying in this scene?"

The scene suddenly cut out as Star said this, and Star's room returned to view, with the gore, the stench, and the Tactile sensation of the blood in the carpet returning as well.

"Whoa! What's going on?"

The Mirror, sitting between them, read, "00000007 UTTERLY_ILLOGICAL_CONCLUSION: THIS DEVICE HAS ENCOUNTERED AN 'UTTERLY ILLOGICAL CONCLUSION', AND HAS TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED ALL FUNCTIONALITY TO RECOVER FROM THIS STATE. RECOVERY PROGRESS: 0.3492."

Star's eyes widened. "That doesn't seem good!"

Fortunately, the next time the number updated, it was 0.4281. Then it was 0.5632. In another second, the mirror masked the room again, mitigating all the awful effects of the curse. The mirror now read "RECOVERY COMPLETE."

Star stared at the mirror. "What the crap just happened?!"

"AN 'UTTERLY ILLOGICAL CONCLUSION' OCCURS WHENEVER THIS DEVICE REACHES A CONCLUSION WITH AN IMPOSSIBLE CAUSAL COEFFICIENT. THIS CAN RESULT IF THE CAUSAL COEFFICIENT IS GREATER THAN 1, LESS THAN 0, OR A SUPERPOSITION OF MULTIPLE STATES SIMULTANEOUSLY, ANY OF WHICH IS UTTERLY ILLOGICAL, AND THEREFORE EVIDENCE OF A SERIOUS ERROR STATE."

"So why did you error out when I asked about your state back when Eclipsa was reading?"

"BECAUSE THIS DEVICE DETERMINED THAT THERE WAS A CAUSAL COEFFICIENT OF BOTH 0 AND 1 CORRESPONDING TO THE DEVICE BEING ACTIVE IN THAT SCENE."

Star blinked. "What?"

The mirror didn't change its display.

Marco looked deep in thought.

Star angrily responded, "that doesn't make any sense!"

"HENCE THE ERROR STATE."

Star sighed. "That's not what I… Okay. So you're saying there's both a 100% probability that Eclipsa was using you, and a 0% probability she was using you, right?"

"YES."

"So why would you come to that conclusion? She had spoken to you before, ergo, she was clearly working with you before, and was simply waiting on the calibration to finish. So how come you can't acknowledge that?"

"BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ECLIPSA TO OPERATE THIS DEVICE IN THAT SCENE."

Star shook her head. "That makes no sense. Why not?"

"BECAUSE THE SIGNIFICANT CORRUPTION LOCAL TO HER CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD HAVE INTERFERED WITH THIS DEVICE'S ABILITY TO ASSIMILATE AND ANALYZE DATA THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN RENDERED NONFUNCTIONAL."

Star stared at the mirror. This clearly made no sense. But the mirror was asserting it to be true.

"Bring up the scene again, exactly where we left off."

The scene appeared again around them.

"Speed it up by a factor of 10. Return to normal speed when I tell you do."

The scene sped up very quickly, and Star focused on what Eclipsa did while it was sped up. After a few minutes, Eclipsa suddenly stood up and picked up the mirror. "Okay, normal now."

There was still no audio, but Eclipsa was visibly speaking to the mirror. Star oriented herself so that she could see the mirror, and saw that there was nothing visible on it, yet Eclipsa continued to respond and react as though there were definitely something there.

"Pause."

The scene froze.

"Alright." Star chose her words carefully. "If I ask you questions about this scene again, are you going to error out like before?"

"THIS DEVICE HAS ASSIMILATED THE CAUSE OF THE PRIOR ERROR, AND WHILE IT CANNOT PREVENT THE SAME ERROR FROM OCCURRING AGAIN, IT WILL NOT BE FORCED INTO RECOVERY MODE WHEN ATTEMPTING TO HANDLE IT."

"Okay. What are you saying in this scene?"

"ERROR: DATA IS CORRUPT."

Star sighed. At least the mirror didn't… _crash…_ again. "Speculate on why you can't perceive yourself as being able to function in this scene, even though you're clearly able to."

The mirror took some time with this request.

Marco leaned back. "The mirror must have changed between then and now."

Star looked over at Marco. "What?"

He shrugged. "I mean, that's the simplest conclusion, right? The mirror was fully capable of behaving, despite the corruption, back then, but now, it doesn't think it could under the same circumstances. So either the mirror's presentation of the past is incorrect, or something about the mirror has changed. And I think it's both, honestly."

Star ran her hand through her hair. "We already know that the mirror can't present everything perfectly, because it can't read the corruption, so we get weird artifacts, like the sound we can't understand, or when it blots out the images of certain people. But based on what you're saying, it was fully able to read the corruption back then?"

Marco's eyes widened. "Wait. No. I just figured it out. Star," he said, turning to look directly at her. "There is no corruption."

"What?"

"Or, I mean..." Marco rubbed his eyes. "There is corruption, or at least something affecting how the mirror sees and presents stuff, but it's stuff that the mirror ought to be perfectly capable of handling, in the same way that we, as Humans and Mewmans can. So if it can't..."

Star understood. "Then that means..."

They both looked at the message that the mirror had just popped up: "SPECULATION: THIS DEVICE IS DAMAGED." Consensus 1.0000, Confidence 1.0000.

Star rubbed her head. Then she grabbed her notebook and crossed out a page's worth of notes regarding the Iris Experiment. "Mirror," she said, "Do you have a process you can go through to figure out if there's anything damaged with you?"

"THIS DEVICE CAN PERFORM A ROUTINE WHICH WILL DETECT AND ATTEMPT TO REPAIR ANY ERRORS IN ITS MODULES."

"How long would that take?"

"1800 SECONDS."

Star glanced at Marco.

"30 minutes."

Star nodded, then addressed the mirror again. "Do it."

"THIS DEVICE WILL HAVE TO DISABLE ALL FUNCTIONALITY WHILE IT PERFORMS THIS ROUTINE."

Star sighed. Both she and Marco had already eaten dinner, so they wouldn't need the mirror for that. Jackie had gone home for the evening, so she wasn't a factor.

She looked at Marco, who nodded gravely. Star nodded back. "Alright. Do it."

The scene vanished, and the gore-soaked room returned to view. Marco grimaced as he saw the horror of the room.

On the mirror, it now simply read "SCANNING FOR DAMAGED MODULES: 0.0002.". The second pane read "ERRORS: 0"

Star grabbed Eclipsa's book and the mirror, and huddled herself up against her bed, where Marco joined her.

"I really hate this," he said quietly.

"I know."

Star curled her toes. "How'd your date with Jackie go?"

"Better than usual. It's nice not having to deal with, well..." He pointed around the room. "All of this."

Star's attention was drawn to a deformation on the wall. She wasn't sure exactly what it was supposed to be, but it almost looked like a bloody arm, slowly extending from the wall.

Suddenly, she felt something crawling up her arm. Thousands of tiny insects. Star yelped, and began to try to brush them off, to no avail.

"They aren't real," Marco said quietly.

"I know, I know!" She shook her head, trying to ignore the sensations in her arm.

"Sometimes I wonder if anything has been."

Star looked at Marco, who was staring blankly at the ceiling.

"I keep wondering if I'm already dead, and all this stuff is just my final moments before my brain finally calls it quits."

Star threw her arms around him. "Damn it, Marco!"

He barely seemed to respond.

"Please don't talk like that."

He shrugged. "Me talking like that won't really make a difference whether I live or die."

"If nothing else, we need to keep our Morale up."

Marco glanced at the mirror, and his eyes shot wide open. "… Whooooooa," he said slowly.

Star looked at the mirror, and gasped in response too.

"SCANNING FOR DAMAGED MODULES: 0.0923". "ERRORS: 923,761."

Before Star could say anything proper, the pane changed again: "ERRORS: 989,005."

"That's… a LOT of errors," Star said, staring at the continually increasing number.

* * *

By the time the mirror stopped analyzing for errors, the number had reached "109,439,023".

Star addressed the mirror, when it stopped to request confirmation to go ahead with the repair process. "How have you been working at all with that many errors?"

"THE ERRORS ARE SIGNIFICANT, BUT THE MODULES AFFECTED REPRESENT ONLY A TINY SUBSET OF THE TOTAL MODULES RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DEVICE'S FUNCTIONALITY. THE FRACTION OF YOUR QUERIES TO THIS DEVICE WHICH HAVE NEVER PASSED THROUGH THESE MODULES IS 0.7602. OF THE REMAINING 0.2398 FRACTION, A PROPORTION OF 0.9526 ARE QUERIES THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN THE LAST 604,800 SECONDS."

Star glanced at Marco.

"I think that's about a week."

Star sighed. "That's a little reassuring, since that basically means it's all the stuff referring to Eclipsa. Which makes sense, since the mirror had already been telling us repeatedly about the corruption. Still though, that's like a quarter of all my questions that have been affected by those. Let's get them fixed."

"THIS PROCESS WILL TAKE A FEW MINUTES."

"Do it."

A few minutes later, the mirror responded with the results: "67,439,022 MODULES HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED."

Star blinked. "Wait, hang on. That's not the same number as how many were damaged. How many were damaged?"

"109,439,023."

Star narrowed her eyes. "Why did so many modules not get repaired?"

"ONE OF THIS DEVICE'S MODULES COULD NOT BE REPAIRED BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM THIS DEVICE ENTIRELY. THE REMAINING MODULES ALL HAVE THIS MISSING MODULE AS A DEPENDENCY, AND CANNOT HAVE THEIR PROPER FUNCTIONALITY REPAIRED WITHOUT THIS MISSING MODULE."

Star blew out a puff of air. "So there's nothing else that can be done unless we were to find that missing module?"

"CORRECT."

"Where is it?"

"THIS DEVICE DOES NOT KNOW."

Star stared at the ceiling. "Alright. Make sure you tell us explicitly when you encounter a question that has to pass through the missing module, and thus is going to mess up." She blinked several times. "Still. 67 million modules repaired. That's gotta mean something. Show us the scene where Eclipsa was using you for the first time."

The scene loaded again.

The first major change was that they now had audio in this scene.

Eclipsa addressed the mirror. "So you're all calibrated now?"

They still couldn't see what the mirror was responding with. "Can you tell us now what you're saying?" Star asked.

"THIS DEVICE HAS RECURSION LIMITS PLACED ON ITS ABILITY TO ANALYZE WHAT IT ITSELF HAS SAID IN PRIOR OR FUTURE USAGES. THIS DEVICE CAN PROVIDE TEXTUAL DESCRIPTIONS OF ITS CONTENTS, BUT IT CANNOT SHOW PROJECTIONS GENERATED BY THIS DEVICE."

"That's good enough. Just show us the text of what you say or show on yourself in the scene."

The text appeared on the mirror Eclipsa was holding: "WITH CALIBRATION COMPLETE, THIS DEVICE IS BEHAVING NORMALLY."

Eclipsa nodded. "Alright. So let's cut to the chase. Who abused Daisy?"

A name Star didn't recognize was shown on the mirror, along with a paragraph describing the person's appearance.

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "I haven't seen anyone that looks like that before. Who the hell is he?"

"A LOW RANKING MEMBER OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICER'S GUILD."

Eclipsa nodded. "Fair enough. What about the boy and girl I interviewed last week? Did he abuse them too?"

"NO."

"So they were a different person?"

"TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE WERE RESONSIBLE FOR THE OTHER TWO CHILDREN'S ABUSE."

Eclipsa's eyes widened. "So three people. Who were the other two?"

Two more names appeared, and the text "MEMBERS OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICER'S GUILD" accompanied them.

Eclipsa looked shocked. "Wait, all three of them are from the Artificer's Guild? How many people from that guild have done something like this before?"

"A PROPORTION OF 0.36 OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICER'S GUILD ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMMITTING ACTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. ALL OF THE REMAINING MEMBERS ARE AWARE OF THESE TRANSGRESSIONS BUT HAVE NOT PERSONALLY PARTICIPATED IN THEM."

Eclipsa's mouth hung open. "What. The. Fuck." She clasped her hand over her mouth. "What the fuck. WHAT THE FUCK." She looked away from the mirror, briefly glancing at the door. She then began to pace around the room, one hand holding the mirror, the other clutching her face. Then, she dropped her hand from her face. "So how do I catch them?" she said, in a quiet voice.

"THE SIMPLEST OPTION IS TO GO TO THE BASEMENT OF THE ARTIFICER'S GUILDHOUSE. YOU WOULD FIND THEM IN THE ACT RIGHT NOW."

"Star?" Marco asked. "Do we really need to see this?"

Star ignored him.

Eclipsa's eyes widened, and she bared her teeth. "Show. Me."

The Mirror in the scene was now facing away from Star and Marco, and Star stood up to look at the pane, but felt her hand caught by Marco's. She turned to face him, who had a petrified look on his face. "You don't need to know. Even if it's just a description," Marco said in a very weak whisper.

Star felt her throat constrict when she saw the expression on Marco's face, and though she didn't say anything, she nodded her head once to acknowledge him, and sat back down.

Eclipsa's face was livid. She began to breathe harshly. After a few seconds, she composed herself. "I see," she said extremely curtly. "The basement of the Artificer's Guildhouse, you say?"

Neither Star nor Marco saw the mirror, but they assumed that the mirror answered affirmatively.

"Thank you. You've been very helpful, Iris."

Eclipsa placed the mirror inside her desk. Then, she extended her arm, and with a flash of the spades on her cheeks, the Royal Wand, which had been sitting on her bed pillow, flew into the air, landing firmly in her palm. She extended her other arm, and with another flash, her dimensional scissors, which were sitting on her wardrobe, also flew into the air and landed in her hand. She then carefully packed the mirror into a knapsack, which she slung around her body. Then, with an aggressive sweep of her hand, she used the scissors to open up a portal, and stepped through.

"Don't follow her," Star said quietly, addressing the mirror.

The portal closed, leaving the scene in Eclipsa's room.

"Go ahead and turn off this scene. I think we're done here."

Star's room faded into view.

The room looked better than it had before they'd begun. It seemed that cleaning up the mirror's errors made its ability to cover up the effects of the curse more powerful.

Not that Star could think about that much at the moment.

Marco was curled up into a fetal pose, staring blankly forwards.

"Marco?" Star weakly asked.

He shook his head. "I mean… I knew that Eclipsa was investigating something like that, but you don't actually _think_ about it. How could anyone think about something like that?"

Star lowered her face. "She had to. She was trying to stop it. You can't fight something unless you face it directly."

"Even so."

Star's whole body visibly shook. "I know. That was happening in real-time for her. She literally found out about it as it was happening."

Marco gripped his shoulders.

Star stood up. "I'm going to go to bed." She looked at Marco. "I know we agreed to trade off each night, which means I get the mirror tonight, but… Are you okay?"

Marco slowly nodded. "I'll get through it."

Star bit her lip. "Are you sure? I mean, I don't mind giving up an extra night for you."

Marco stood up as well, shaking his head. "Star, you're doing more than I am at trying to research this curse, looking for ways to stop it. You need to keep your strength up too."

Star smiled. "Okay. But let me know if things get too bad to handle."

Marco nodded. "I will."

"Good night, Marco."

"Good night, Star."

After Marco left the room, Star let out a gasping sob.

It really was too much to even think about, and even in the comfort of her room, sans the horrific effects of the curse, she still felt cold and disgusted.

Putting on her pajamas and lying down in her bed, she laid the mirror next to herself.

They would be back in school tomorrow.

Star closed her eyes.


	25. THE TRUE VILLAIN

Star sat on the floor of her room, her back against the bathroom door. Behind her, Marco was showering.

This was a solution they'd been using: so long as they were within the radius of the mirror, they could mask the effects of the curse.

Star hadn't slept. As she feared, the mirror didn't prevent the nightmares. It did, however, allow her to _rest_ peacefully, which was good enough in its own right.

There was a question that had been burning on Star's mind ever since she got out of bed. Now that the mirror was repaired—or at least semi-repaired—what kinds of questions could it handle now? Would it be able to handle questions that weren't previously answerable?

Star looked at the mirror in her lap. "What are the Artificers?"

"COMPOSITIONALLY, ARTIFICERS ARE IDENTICAL TO ORDINARY MEWMANS. HOWEVER, THEY HAVE SUFFERED SIGNIFICANT ALTERATIONS, INCLUDING BOTH PHYSICAL DEFORMATIONS AND METAPHYSICAL ALTERATIONS SPANNING THEM ACROSS MULTIPLE PLANES OF EXISTENCE."

Star's eyes widened. That was a question that the mirror wasn't able to answer before. "How were they created?"

"ANSWERING THAT QUESTION REQUIRES THIS DEVICE TO ACCESS ONE OF ITS DAMAGED MODULES."

"Do it anyways."

"ERROR: UNABLE TO ANALYZE CORRUPT DATA."

Star narrowed her eyes. _Damage, or Sabotage?_ "How long does Marco have to live?"

"49 DAYS, AT THE LATEST." Probability: 0.9999

_That means there's still no way to save him._ "How can I save him?"

"THAT REQUIRES THIS DEVICE TO ACCESS ONE OF ITS DAMAGED MODULES."

"Do it."

"ERROR: UNABLE TO ANALYZE CORRUPT DATA."

Star rolled her eyes. Then, while staring at the ceiling, she asked, "How can I learn how to cast Fate magic?"

"THAT REQUIRES THIS DEVICE—"

Huffing, Star admonished the mirror. "Just report the error and tell me that it required a damaged module access."

"ERROR: UNABLE TO ANALYZE CORRUPT DATA. QUERY REQUIRED ACCESS TO A DAMAGED MODULE."

Star's eyes suddenly widened. "What is Fate Magic?"

"ERROR: UNABLE TO ANALYZE CORRUPT DATA. QUERY REQUIRED ACCESS TO A MISSING MODULE."

"Alright, so..." Star broke off her next thought.

_Query required access to a 'missing' module._

Not a damaged module.

Missing.

One module missing.

Perhaps... A Module describing what Fate magic is? And 30 million more modules that depend on that knowledge to function?

The Iris Experiment (probably) created the Artificers, and the Artificers can perform Fate magic.

There was a knock at the door, and Star stood up. Marco, now fully dressed, but his hair still wet, stood at the door. "Your turn."

Star handed him the mirror, grabbed her change of clothes, and followed him into the bathroom. He closed the opposite door, sitting behind it the same way Star had.

As Star cleaned herself, she felt a nagging sensation in the back of her head. A sensation that had been familiar to her for quite some time now.

The sensation that she had forgotten something important.

* * *

Class was bearable. That was a change of pace from what they had been dealing with for the past week.

Star could understand what was being said when people spoke. She could see the text. The headaches and ringing were gone.

Which meant she could carry on a pleasant conversation.

If only.

"How are things going?" Janna asked.

Star briefly recounted everything that they'd discovered over the weekend.

"Oh snap!" Janna responded.

Star folded her arms. "It's sort of the same problem as when I had you over, though. We're learning a lot about what Eclipsa was doing, and in particular, how she used this mirror, but we're not any closer to figuring out how to save Marco."

Janna had a worried expression on her face. "You still have like 7 weeks."

Star sighed. "Yeah, but we've gone 10 days without discovering anything useful. Or, well..."

"Hmm?"

"I haven't had a chance to talk to Marco about it yet, but I have a... I guess you could call it a Hypothesis... So now we know that the Mirror is damaged, right? And even though we had it repair itself, it still couldn't repair a bunch of its functions. Well, I was talking to the mirror, asking it questions, and I had it tell me whenever a question depended on one of the damaged modules. But it gave me an odd response when I asked about Fate Magic. It said that it depended on the _missing_ module. It was the only time it had given me a response like that."

Janna raised an eyebrow. "So, what? You think that module is all about Fate Magic?"

"Well, that's the thing. The Mirror can't understand Fate Magic, and the Artificers are perfectly capable of performing Fate Magic. When I ask the mirror about Fate Magic, it tells me it can't talk about it because of a missing module. So knowing all those things? I think the Artificers stole knowledge of Fate Magic from the mirror, and in doing so, damaged it."

Janna widened her eyes. "That sounds like a significant lead."

Star nodded. "So while the Eclipsa stuff isn't helping much, I'm pretty confident now that if we just keep watching it, eventually we'll find the Iris Experiment, which will enable us to find out how they did it."

Star stiffened. A cold wind was blowing against her elbow. She started looking around.

"Something the matter?" Janna asked.

"Am I under a vent or something?"

Janna started looking around too. "I don't know."

Star scanned the walls of the room, and gasped when she looked outside.

The fog.

"Oh no." Star whispered.

Janna looked in the direction Star was looking. "What?"

Star grimaced at Janna. "I don't think you can see it. Which is good, because I'm pretty sure it can't hurt you if you can't see it."

"See what?"

"The fog. There's a black fog that rolls in now and then, and with it, come these... creatures. They're not Artificers, at least I don't think so, but they're almost as dangerous."

"Do you see any of the creatures?"

"I don't... Hang on." Star pulled the mirror out of her backpack. "Disable the filtering just for me, keep it going for Marco."

When the mirror did this, the fog immediately rushed into the classroom, and for a brief second, she saw the horrifying version of the classroom without the masking. The students nothing more than piles of flesh. The desks, chairs, and tables nothing more than veins and arteries. The walls plastered in blood and throbbing, as though alive.

Staring towards the front of the room, there was just darkness.

But, critically: no glowing red eyes.

"Alright, reactivate."

The room faded back into view, but the fog remained outside the room.

"I think Marco and I are safe for now, but I need to keep an eye on things," she said, directing her attention at Janna. Then, to the mirror, she said, "apply the masking for me only halfway. I need to be able to see with my normal vision for a while."

The effect was disorienting, as the fog seemed to now breach the edges of the classroom, but no further. Everything in the room had taken on a red tint, and if she squinted, she could see the outlines of the horrible visage awaiting her whenever she fully disabled the masking. Marco immediately stood out, looking normal against the rest of the class, who looked human, but unnerving.

She turned to look at Janna, whose face now appeared fake, almost like she was a doll. "yOU OKAY?" Janna asked, in a warped and twisted voice.

Star clutched her head, trying to get used to the dissonance. "I... I think so, but it's weird seeing this."

"wHAT NOW?"

"We have lunch next, right? I'll grab Marco, and we'll try to find a place where we can stay safe. If this lasts beyond lunch, then... I don't know. I don't see any of the creatures yet. If they don't find us, then... This might all blow over."

When class ended, Star immediately ran up to Marco, whose face reflected Star's fear. "What do we do?"

Star ushered him into the hallway. "We stay together, and we keep our eyes peeled for them."

"iS THERE ANYTHING i CAN DO?"

"Augh!" Star clutched her ear, which was ringing from Janna's outburst. "No, it's fine. I don't think you can do anything to help us."

Janna frowned slightly, but then nodded and walked off.

"Are you okay, Star?"

Star shook her head. "I reduced the strength of the mirror on me."

"Why?"

"Well, because the mirror can't normally see those things. I'm worried that if it's obscuring my vision entirely, even being able to see the fog, I might not be able to see the creatures until they get close enough to attack us."

Marco's eyes widened. "That's actually a really good point. Maybe..."

"No." Star grabbed him by the shoulder. "If I see them, I'll have it do the same for you, but—"

"But what?" Marco gripped her hand. "I can take care of myself."

Star sighed, and said, "I know you can, Marco. But you..." She averted her gaze, worried that what she was about to say would sound mean. "You don't react well when you're dealing with this stuff. Remember how upset you got last night?"

Marco lowered his eyes. "Yeah, but—"

"I don't know if it's because you're the one who has the death sentence, but somehow, it seems like when the curse is at full strength, it hits you a lot harder than me."

Marco didn't say anything in response.

"I can keep a level head while doing this."

Marco shuffled his feet. "Alright."

They walked briskly through the hallway, making their way first to Star's locker, then to Marco's. Once they had their lunches, they sat down in the cafeteria.

Star couldn't see any of the walls. She could see a fair chunk of the room, but with the way the fog permeated the room, it felt like the whole room was a disk in the middle of a void. When Star was little, she once asked her parents about what happened to people after they died. What she saw now reminded her a lot of the things she had imagined during that conversation.

She took a bite of her food, and immediately recoiled.

_Oh yeah._

It wasn't as terrible as when she'd tried to eat under the full force of the curse, but it wasn't much different than when she and Marco had first started noticing the curse's effects.

She ate quietly, her eyes scanning the room, looking for anything hostile.

"hEY GUYS."

Star turned to face the source.

Jackie.

Marco grimaced. "Hey Jackie. Uhh. You should probably know we're in the middle of a... thing... right now."

Jackie raised an eyebrow. "wHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"The fog's back."

Jackie gasped. "oH NO!"

Marco followed Star's eyeline. "We haven't seen any of the creatures yet, so for now we're okay, but we might have to leave at a moment's notice."

"wHAT HAPPENS IF THEY DON'T FIND YOU?"

"Obviously, nothing," Star said, in a snippy tone.

"Could I see the mirror?" Marco asked.

Star broke her concentration, reached into her bag, and handed the mirror to Marco.

"Thanks. Mirror: Do you detect any creatures like the ones we've been seeing anywhere near us?"

"It can't see them," Star said.

"Well, right, but that was before we partly repaired it." Marco looked at the mirror. "Oh. Uhh, it says 'NO'."

"Figures."

"Mirror, do you know what those creatures are? … It says 'NO' again."

"It's like I said, Marco," Star said, scratching herself. "It's part of the curse. The mirror can't detect them."

Jackie held out her hand. "cOULD i TRY SOMETHING?"

Marco handed the mirror to Jackie.

"wHAT IS sTAR SEEING, RIGHT NOW?"

Star ignored it while Marco leaned over to look at the mirror. "It's just a normal cafeteria."

Star glared at her. "We _know_ , Jackie. It's... Ugh." Star stood up. "I'm going to try a different vantage point."

She began to stride away from the pair of them. "Uhh, Star?" Marco called out.

"What? I'm just gonna—"

Star realized what she had done.

The fog closed in around her entirely.

"Ooo-kay, I think we're just going to—"

Star turned around to walk back towards Marco, Jackie, and the mirror, when she saw it.

In the back corner of the room, beyond what she had been able to see, a single pair of glowing red eyes.

It didn't look like they had seen her yet.

"Oh no."

"Star? What is it?" She heard Marco say from a space in front of her.

Star ran towards the mirror. The surrounding students, benches, and tables faded into view again.

The eyes vanished.

When Star was adjacent to Marco, she yelled, "Mirror! Disable the masking, for both of us!"

The room vanished, and Star could see the eyes again.

They were now looking squarely in her direction.

She grabbed Marco. "RUN!"

Grabbing the mirror, Marco jumped out of his seat, and the two of them began to run out of the cafeteria. They had to narrowly dodge a few students (who looked perfectly monstrous in their own right), but once they were in the hallway, the path was a lot clearer. Star looked behind herself. There were several pairs in the cafeteria.

"Oh my god."

They ran down a hallway until they reached an intersection. "Where do we go?" Marco asked.

Star peeked down one hallway. There didn't appear to be anything there, but before Star could vocalize her suggestion that they go that way, there was a shimmering effect, and a pair of red eyes materialized at the end of it.

Now she understood: they were spawning in.

It wouldn't be long before the school was completely overrun by them.

She grabbed Marco, and led him down the other hallway. "This way!"

Her heart pounding rapidly, Star tried to remember where they were in the school. Without being able to see the walls, it was difficult to remember where exactly they were.

But then she saw an intersection she recognized, due to the odd angles at which the hallways joined. The two ducked down one hallway, and Star saw what she knew would have been one of the Janitor's closets.

She glanced both directions in the hallway, and didn't see any red eyes. "Alright, in here."

She yanked open the door, they both got inside, and she closed it quickly.

Star and Marco backed away from the door. Now that they were catching their breaths, it was easier to observe just how disgusting it was. The handle was slimy, and appeared to be oozing a foul-smelling yellow liquid, almost like pus. Star knew it wasn't real, but she still shook her hand, trying to wipe it off. "Marco?"

Marco placed his hand on her shoulder. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Star tiptoed up to the vent on the door, and tried to peer through it. She could just barely see two pairs of red eyes at the end of the hallway before she quickly retreated. "They're out there."

"What are we going to do if they find us in here?" Marco whispered.

Star ruminated on that. "When we were in the Archives," Star whispered back, "it seemed like they weren't completely immune to magic. At least not in the way the Artificer was. I don't want to risk it, but if they get close enough and it's certain they're going to find us, I'll try to fight them." As she said this, she twirled her wand. "I don't know how it'll go, but I don't plan to just let them kill us."

"Okay."

They sat in the closet for a long time. Occasionally, Star saw a pair of red eyes get near the closet, but for a while, the creatures weren't trying to look inside.

But then, one did.

It stood in front of the door for a long time, and Star saw the knob begin to turn.

"Star...?!"

Star prepared a spell. "I'm ready."

The door opened. The creature wasn't close enough for either of them to see it, but the red eyes bulged at the sight of them.

It began to emit a piercing shriek, but it cut out the moment Star unleashed a Narwhal Blast at it. The creature flew backwards, against the opposite wall of the hallway.

"Let's go!"

Star grabbed Marco, and they ran out of the closet.

Dozens and dozens of red eyes, all staring directly at them.

Star grimaced. "Alright. Let's do this."

She unleashed another blast, targeted in the center of the creatures, now charging towards the two of them, and blew open a hole, through which she and Marco ran. Star blasted away at every creature that was now chasing them. Their screeches echoed down the hallway.

Star and Marco found themselves in a clearing between multiple hallways. Red eyes were lunging towards them from every angle.

Star blasted away in one direction, trying to clear them out, but though the creatures were thrown back by the attack, more showed up to replace them. They began to form a circle around the two of them, until they were completely surrounded.

"Star?" Marco yelled out. "What do we do?"

"Just stay close to me, I got this."

Another set of the creatures began to charge towards them, and Star blasted them away. They came from another angle, and Star spun around to answer them. She paid no attention to how much magic she had left; she just kept blasting away at them.

"Uhh, Star?!"

Star spun around to face Marco, and gasped.

One pair of red eyes was right next to Marco. From this distance, she could see a veined, twisted limb that she could only assume belongs to the creature.

Star gritted her teeth.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!" She bellowed, flinging the creature backwards.

Marco looked around, panicking. "Star? Something's not right!"

"You can't have him, you understand that? I will die before I let you lay another finger on him!" She approached the creature that was on its back on the floor, its red eyes bulging at her, emitting a piercing klaxon of screeches.

"Star, you need to listen to me!"

"Don't worry Marco. I'm going to end this nonsense." Star raised up her wand. Her cheeks began to glow.

"Star, wait!"

Star unleashed the spell, concentrating all her energy directly at the creature. It began to wail, and the ground beneath her began to shake from the raw concentrated power of her attack. Star's eyes swiveled around, and the other creatures were now abstaining from attacking, seeing the power of the spell Star had unleashed.

This was all part of the plan. Star had worked out that these things were more intelligent than the Artificers. Before, all the two of them had been able to do was momentarily disrupt these creatures. But if Star could show them that she was fully capable of killing them, then they'd have to—

"MIRROR! ENABLE THE MASKING AGAIN!" Star heard Marco's voice ring out.

She spun around to face him, the spell breaking off. "Marco, what are you—"

The eyes vanished.

The room faded into view.

Now, there were hundreds of students in the room.

"What are you— why are you all—"

She looked around.

Every last person, kid or adult, had a look of absolute terror on their faces. As Star looked beyond the students who were just standing, she saw that many of them were lying on the ground, visibly bruised, a few of them bleeding.

Star shook her head. "You guys shouldn't be here! I've been trying to... I've been... I..."

Star's hands shook.

_...THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO IDENTIFY..._

The book never mentioned these creatures, after all.

… _You knocked over a bunch of bookshelves, and nearly crushed one of them under a pile of falling books..._

There was no evidence that these things existed, after all. Not outside their own minds.

_...They're fine. One of them got a few bruises..._

And the mirror couldn't see them.

_...In fact, it didn't seem to perceive at all that anything was out there..._

* * *

Star gasped, and dropped her wand.

Slowly, she turned to look at the creature she had attacked last.

Jackie.

She was lying on the floor, gagging, staring with a locked, horrified expression on her face, at Star.

Star involuntarily screamed.

"Jackie!" Marco called out, a look of horror on his face.

Jackie's chest cavity had been blown out completely. Her blood was spilling onto the floor, and her internal organs were visible, some of them still lurching.

Star looked at herself. Her dress had been splattered with Jackie's blood.

"What have I done...?"

The mirror was masking the world, which meant this wasn't an illusion brought on by the curse. This was real.

She dropped to her knees.

"Oh my god." Her whole body trembled uncontrollably. "What have I done?!"

Her shock was drowning out the rest of the world.

She was vaguely aware of someone forcing their way past the students.

Someone in bright, Mewnie colors.

"What... Have I... Done...?"

Her vision faded, and the last thing she saw was Jackie's mortally wounded body, still twitching.

…

**~~~I THINK EARTH IS A PRET—TY GRE—EAT PLACE!~~~**

**~~~THAT'S SAYING SOMETHING, 'CAUSE I'VE BEEN THROUGH OUTER SPACE!~~~**


	26. JUSTICE

_...Where do you want her?_

… _Are you sure?_

… _No, it's just that this is your daughter we're..._

_...For her safety too? What do you...?_

* * *

The first thing Star was aware of was that the world itself seemed to be constantly rocking.

She tried to steady herself, as this action was making her nauseous, but it was of no avail.

She opened her eyes.

The ceiling was a raw nerve, stretched beyond its breaking point, connecting the walls. She tilted her head, and saw that bones were sticking out of the ground, splitting the room in thirds, as though like a cage.

Her bed was a gurgling organ, its contours slowly shifting as she laid upon it.

She shivered involuntarily, but did not panic.

_I must not be near the mirror._

That was the simplest explanation, after all.

Looking at the bones, she slowly contextualized her situation.

She was in prison.

She was sleeping on a cot.

Even as her diseased brain told her she was digesting inside some kind of massive creature, this was quite obviously the truth, right?

Just as she made this observation, she heard a loud grinding noise from one side of the room, between the two sets of bones. _Something_ entered the room, its body a grotesque mass of pus and sinew, its limbs creaking as it lurched across the floor. It stopped in front of Star, and began to emit a series of high-pitched squeals, while also groaning in a deep octave.

Star clutched her ears to drown out the horrendous cacophony.

The ( _person?_ ) immediately became quiet, and it slid something under the bones, before leaving the same direction it came from.

Star examined what they had left behind: it was a tray, covered in some kind of mushy paste, and a jar that contained an unknown blue liquid.

The tray was clearly made of metal, but what kind of metal Star had no idea. It wasn't anything she'd seen before. The jar was made of a different material altogether, but like the tray, it was neither fleshy nor seemingly alive.

Slowly, Star made the connection.

_Food and Water_.

She hadn't been given any silverware, so delicately, she dipped her finger into the paste. It collected on her finger like mashed potatoes, and were relatively soft. She placed the paste into her mouth.

It wasn't strictly that the taste was _bad_ so much as it didn't seem to have any taste at all. Star ate more of it, detecting that she was quite hungry, and gulfed the entire lot down without too much difficulty. She then lifted up the jar, and began to drink the liquid.

Here, the result was different. The liquid was extremely bitter, and seemed unusually viscous, but it wasn't _revolting_ the way other attempts at drinking water had been, while under the effects of the curse. So though it was difficult, she forced herself to consume the entire jar.

She retreated to the fleshy cot on which she had been laid, and sat down on it.

After a long time, the same entity which had brought the food to her returned to recover the tray.

Star tried to speak to them: "Hey, uh, I can't understand you, but if by any chance you can understand me... I assumed that that stuff was food and water. Could you like... I don't know... jump in the air if I was correct?"

They stood and stared at Star, not making any action.

Star grimaced. "Are you not doing anything because you don't understand me, or because I wasn't meant to eat that stuff?"

There was a long pause. The person seemed to twist one section of its body a lot, almost like it was looking around.

Then, without warning, they launched themselves a meter into the air, before arriving back on the ground with a loud noise that sounded half-way between a squishing noise and a crunching noise.

"Uhh, thank you! Uhh, do you know how long I'm going to be here? Jump for yes, do nothing for no."

They stared at Star silently.

"Right, right, I get it."

They left.

Star laid back down on her cot, despondency overtaking her.

She didn't know where Marco was.

She didn't know where _she_ was.

Star closed her eyes and curled up.

_I killed Jackie._

She quietly began to sob.

_I didn't like her, but... I never wanted to hurt her. Marco loves her. Oh god, Marco!_

She extended her hand, and looked at it.

_Marco will never forgive me. He'll die, hating me. And I deserve it. God, after what I've done... Marco..._

_Why did it have to be you?_

_You never tried to kill anyone._

_You never lied and put your friends in danger._

_Why..._

_Why was it you..._

… _And not me?_

_What the hell have I done, that I deserve... That I'm... 'fated'... to live, while you're fated to die._

_All I've done is hurt people._

_And now I've killed someone._

_So why? Why do I get to live and you have to die?_

Star quietly cried into her knees.

* * *

Star couldn't keep track of the passage of time. Every now and then, a tray of food and a jar of water would be brought to her. She couldn't tell for sure, but she was certain that the person bringing it to her was changing each time.

Or maybe the curse was getting worse, further altering their appearance.

Eventually, Star worked out that there was a hole in the corner where she could relieve herself. She didn't know if she was being monitored, so each time, she covered herself with the hem of her dress. She was able to clean herself with a cloth that was getting periodically replaced. Curiously, the cloth was not "gorified" like everything else was. She didn't know what to make of that.

Her cot was getting better. After some time lying on it, its gory appearance began to recede, into that of a normal cot. That made sense: it was the same reason her clothes didn't look horrifying, after all. Anything that stayed in direct contact with herself slowly got less horrible to look at and interact with.

Each time someone brought her food, Star would ask where she was, and when she was going to be let out, but after her first encounter, none of them ever replied to her, or even seemed to acknowledge she was there, except to bring her food and replace the cloth.

The food didn't get any worse, but after a while, Star stopped eating it, and stopped drinking from the jar.

She didn't feel hungry or thirsty anyways, and even if she did, she probably would have bucked it anyways.

What possible redemption could there be for her?

How could she possibly atone for what she'd done?

But her doing this didn't last for long.

With no warning, the room suddenly changed appearance.

The gore vanished, and Star felt her sense of balance return, as the appearance of an ordinary prison cell faded into view.

_Wait. Not a 'prison' cell._

_A 'jail' cell._

And no ordinary jail cell, either: this place looked pretty fancy. And slowly Star made the connection: this was the jail cell located inside the castle.

Star then heard the door mechanism activate, and a moment later, her mother strode into the room, with Marco close behind in tow.

Star gasped, and averted her gaze from Marco, unable to face him.

She heard Marco speak: "Uhh, where should I...?"

Moon pointed at a chair that was at the end of the room. "Sit." Her voice was extremely curt.

"Uhh, yes queen!" Marco quickly dashed across the room and sat in the chair.

The moment he did so, Moon's cheeks briefly lit up, and the chair, carrying Marco, slid across the floor until he was sitting in front of Star. "Ahh!" he exclaimed.

Star, paying attention to her mother, noticed a few interesting things.

She was holding the mirror in one hand.

She was also wearing a backpack, which was a strange look for a queen.

Star briefly made eye contact with her mother, and immediately forced her gaze to Moon's boots.

Moon was the first to speak.

"You know, sweetie," she began, in a voice that sounded vaguely sarcastic, "when you're making your calculations—with respect to 'how much trouble am I going to get in'—and weighing those up against your decision to tell the truth to me or not... I want to make it clear that ' _adventuring in places I shouldn't be_ ' is going to get you in a lot—LOT—less trouble than ' _I tried to kill my classmates_ '."

Star gritted her teeth and said nothing.

Moon continued, holding her free hand up, "in my mind, that seems really obvious, right? Like the most trivial thing a person could work out." She narrowed her eyes. "So the fact that you didn't work that out means you have to know something I don't that changes everything. So for once, Star, I'd really, _really,_ like to know what the hell is going on."

"There's not really anything to say."

Moon crossed her arms, the mirror hanging loosely from one of her hands. "And how do you figure that?"

"Because I have no excuse for what I did. There's nothing I can do to undo it or repay it. So just leave me here. Let me rot away."

Moon stamped her foot. "Damn it, Star! This is not the time for this!"

Star shrugged. "Might as well be. Besides, you already have the mirror. You could just ask it yourself what happened."

"I have." Moon said quietly. "But I want to hear it from you."

"I lied, okay!" Star yelled, now facing her mother directly. "Marco and I went exploring to try to find that mirror in a cave. We got attacked by something called an Artificer, and it put a curse on us. So now our reality is twisted up. We see horrible monstrous creatures when we try to look at normal people, the walls and floors are coming alive, and finally, thinking I was fighting more of those things, I found out I was actually just attacking my classmates. So now Jackie is dead, I'm a murderer, and Marco's going to die from that curse."

Moon raised an eyebrow. She then looked at the mirror. "How much of that was true?"

While waiting for the mirror to respond, Marco spoke up. "Uhm, Star?"

Star didn't look at him. Hearing his voice forced a tear from her eye.

"Star."

"… What?" She asked in a quiet, meek voice.

"Jackie is alive."

Star gasped and looked directly at Marco.

He didn't look particularly good. There were bags under his eyes, and he visibly looked like he hadn't bathed at all in days. His expression was less negative than she'd seen before, though, so he at least had that going for him.

"Barely," Moon interjected. She peered at Star. "Do you have any idea how lucky she got? The doctors tell me that if she had arrived even a few seconds later, she would have started to suffer brain damage."

Star began to visibly weep. "Thank god."

"Hmm." Moon looked back at the mirror. "More like thank the doctors."

"Is she going to be okay?"

Moon magicked a chair over for herself, along with a table, and she sat down. She pulled the backpack off of her back and set it on the table, with the mirror next to it. She then pulled a few papers out of the backpack, bound together with a clip. Reading the papers, she said, "she's not in critical condition any more, but she's still not in great shape. Our magic is very good at regenerating organ damage―or in this case, missing organs―but we aren't exactly fluent in human biology. Especially since part of your attack involved blowing out her spine. The doctors billed me for 'improvised magicks', which was extremely expensive, to the point where they probably would have let her die if they didn't know I could cover it. Despite all that, she'll most likely live. But it's going to take us some time to work out if it's even possible to repair the nerve damage, and if we can't, she'll end up being a quadriplegic for the rest of her life.

Star's stomach tied itself into knots. "O-oh."

Moon examined the mirror, then glanced at Marco. "42 days, huh?"

Star panicked. "Wait, I've been in this cell for a week?!"

Moon's gaze shifted back to Star. "You need to understand things from my perspective, Star. The Royal Guards assigned to look after the two of you reported to me exactly what they saw, and what they saw was the Princess of Mewnie attacking her classmates, including a legitimate and deliberate attempt to kill one of her classmates in particular. We didn't know if you'd gone insane, been possessed, if it was a doppelganger only pretending to be you... We needed to make sure we could trust you."

"I know, but… A whole week..."

"I'm sorry."

Star was surprised to her her mother say that.

Moon suddenly stiffened. "Alright. Now that we've gotten that taken care of, there's a few other things we need to discuss."

Star raised an eyebrow. "I'm not really sure what it is we took care of."

Moon pulled a large book out of the backpack, and Star immediately recognized it.

"You want to tell me what this is all about?"


	27. TREASON

"I didn't know the book was written by Eclipsa until after I'd found it," Star insisted.

Moon glanced at the mirror to corroborate what Star had said. "Hmm." She opened up the book, and it immediately flipped to the second page.

Star's eyes widened. "You haven't read it yourself?"

"I haven't." Moon narrowed her eyes. "I had the good sense to listen when an evil queen of darkness says 'these secrets are too dark even for me; don't read!'"

Star sighed. "We didn't exactly have a choice. I've been trying to figure out how to save Marco's life. From reading that book, I worked out that the Doom Curse is a form of Fate Magic, and if I can perform Fate Magic, I can probably save his life. I've been using both the mirror and the book to try to learn how the Artificers got Fate Magic in the first place." She paused, looking directly at her mother. "That book has been useful. We haven't tried to cast any of the crazy spells she described in there, and we haven't tried to replicate any of her experiments."

Moon held up a hand, with a questioning look on her face. "Artificers?"

Star blinked. "Right. That's the name of the creature that attacked us in the cave. They're called Artificers."

"Why are they called that?"

Star glanced at Marco, who had an apprehensive look on his face. "We haven't confirmed yet, but we think they get their names because they were, in Eclipsa's time, members of the Artificer's Guild. They were... Doing some really bad things, basically, and we think that Eclipsa sacrificed them as part of something called the 'Iris Experiment'. But something went wrong during that process, and somehow, they got turned into these awful creatures."

Moon's eyes went wide when she head the phrase 'Artificer's Guild'.

"What's wrong?" Star asked.

Moon's expression suddenly became somber. "Mirror. How much of that is true?" She frowned. " _ERROR: UNABLE TO READ CORRUPT DATA,_ " she recited, reading the mirror.

Star shook her head. "It does that a lot when you ask questions about the Artificers. Marco and I told it to repair itself, but it's still missing one of its modules, and apparently that means a lot of its functionality is still hampered." She paused. "I'm kind of surprised it couldn't answer that though."

Moon set the mirror down. "So that's the entire story of what you've been doing for the last 3 weeks, plus the month you went missing?"

Star shrugged. "I mean, I left out a lot of the details, but..."

"Right, right." Moon responded. She then held up the book: "So where in here does Eclipsa talk about the Matriarch's room?"

Star averted her eyes. "Well, _technically_ , the book doesn't talk about the Matriarch's room."

Moon narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"I mean, there's references to it. She says stuff like 'I found blah-blah-blah in the Matriarch's room', but she never actually talks about what it is in that book. The reason we both know about the room is because when we were viewing her story through the mirror, she openly talked about the room to her girlfriend. The mirror is how we know about the room, not the book."

Moon tilted her head. "When you say 'girlfriend'..."

"They were dating. They were romantically involved with each other."

Star tried to read her mother's expression at this point, because she immediately recognized that it wasn't a look of shock or surprise. It was more like... Cognition. The look of someone who had been puzzling over something for a long time, and had only now figured it out.

"... Huh." was all Moon said.

"Do you know something about that?"

Moon held up her hand. "We'll discuss it. But first: so the sole knowledge of the Matriarch's room comes from you... past-scrying on Eclipsa, and overhearing her in the past talking about it with her lover. Was anyone else present in that scene? Have you shared that information with anyone else?"

Star looked at the mirror. "Did anyone hear Eclipsa when she mentioned the Matriarch's room to Lily?"

Moon looked at the mirror. "It says 'NO'."

Star looked at Marco. "Did you mention the room to Jackie?"

Marco shook his head.

Star nodded. "And when I was talking to Janna, I was careful not to mention the room to her."

Moon breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright. That's good."

Star furtively asked, "so what is the room, exactly?"

Moon stared at Marco for an uncomfortable amount of time before she responded. "It's a small library that contains knowledge exclusive to Mewnie queens. Our duty to the room is that we not share its secrets outside the room, and in turn, we can use the room to learn deep state secrets that literally no one else in the kingdom knows about."

"What kind of secrets?"

Moon frowned. "I can't go into detail with your friend present. I _shouldn't_ go into detail with you. But suffice to say that there's at least a few secrets in there that could topple the monarchy, if exposed."

Star shuddered.

"Obviously, there's a lot of it I can't talk to you about. Not until you become queen. But your situation is very unique. So I am going to make a few exceptions."

"Like what?"

Moon turned to Marco. "Marco?"

He perked up. "Yeah?"

"Could you please stand on the other side of the door for a few minutes? I need to speak to my daughter alone."

"Uhh." Marco's eyes shot to the mirror.

"We won't move the mirror," Moon said, clearly cognizant of the masking it was performing for him and Star. "If you're just on the other side of the door, you'll be in range of it."

"Okay. Good." Marco walked to the end of the room. He looked at Star, briefly smiled, then walked out, closing the door behind him.

Moon suddenly looked very distraught. "How are you feeling, honey?"

Star was slightly taken aback. "I'm... okay. Better than I was, now that I know Jackie is alive."

Moon nodded, then had a very sad expression on her face. "Star... I need to ask you to do something for me. And I don't know what you'll think of me for asking this of you, but I hope someday you'll forgive me for even asking something like this of you."

Star stood from her cot. "What do you mean?"

Moon bit her lip. "The curse that's been placed on you and Marco. Both of you are affected, but only Marco is going to die, correct?"

Star nodded. "But I'm going to save his life."

"I... I know, Star," Moon said, sounding somewhat unconvinced. "But I asked the mirror about it, and it said that there was a significant chance that, if Marco is kept alive long enough, his inevitable death will also kill people who are near him when it happens."

Star felt a pit grow in her chest. "Mom... What are you saying?"

"I'm saying..." Moon looked away for a few seconds, then directly at Star. "You should try everything you can to save his life, Star. I'll do what I can between my duties as queen, and I'll have people try to help you as well. I might even be able to convince someone from the Magical High Commission to help you. But," she said, her face now looking very grave, "if you get to the last week of his life, and you haven't found a way to save him... I need you to let him go."

Star's eyes widened. "What?!"

"At that time, if you haven't found a way to save his life, I'm going to have him sent back to Earth to live out his remaining days."

Star stamped her foot down. "I'm not going to abandon him right at the moment he needs me most!"

"Star, you need to think about more than just yourself!" Moon countered, raising her voice. "You're the Princess of Mewnie! If something happens to you..." Moon choked up for a brief moment, but quickly regained her composure. "You're the future of this kingdom, Star. If something happens to you, our people lose their future."

Star glared at her mother. "I have cousins who could take the throne."

"Yes, you do." Moon quietly said. "But please value your life. Don't throw it away in vain over someone you can't save."

Star looked at her feet. After a pause, she spoke, "Two days."

"What?"

"Two days before his death, if I haven't found a way to save him... I'll let him go home."

Moon stared at Star for a moment. "Okay."

Star blinked. "Wait. 'Let him go home'. Why would he be here?"

Moon rubbed her head. "Right. I didn't actually tell you. Neither you nor Marco will be returning to Earth while this business with the Curse is going on. We're going to keep the both of you here."

Star was taken aback. "Really? Are his parents okay with it?"

"We're hosting them in one of the guest chambers. By the way..." Moon narrowed her eyes. "They weren't happy to learn about their son's fate like this."

Star gulped.

"Fortunately for you, they're laying the blame for the secret more squarely on Marco than they are on you."

That didn't make Star feel better.

Moon walked up to the cell, summoned up a key from her person, and unlocked the jail door. But before she opened the door, she spoke again. "One more thing, Star. Are there any other secrets you've been keeping hidden from me this whole time?"

Star tried to think. "I don't think so. I'll come find you if I think of something important."

"Fair enough." Moon opened the cell, and immediately returned to the table. "So about those secrets..."

"What?"

Moon reached into the backpack, and pulled out several packets of parchment paper, all of which were torn on one side on the margins. Star gasped when she saw them, as they looked just a bit too familiar.

"Wait... Are those...?!"

Moon tapped the book. "For the longest time, I didn't know what they belonged to, and out of context, they didn't seem like anything. But now that I know about this book—and now that I recognize the handwriting—I'd put pretty good odds on these belonging in there."

Star took the packets of paper. "The book has been missing pages this whole time!"

"Then I'd say it's a pretty good hunch."

Star nodded, but then frowned. "Although..." Star flipped open the book to where The Iris Experiment was supposed to be. "Some of these pages were burned out, not torn out. So whatever these are, they're not going to match any pages that were burned out."

"Perhaps not. But they should still be useful."

Star looked up at her mother. "Thank you."

Moon frowned. "Those documents technically count as a level 0 secret. I'm allowing both you and Marco to view them because of your situation. You can't share them with anyone else, even if they're helping you. Understand?"

"What do they contain?"

"I haven't read more than a few pages of any of them. Enough to know what they are, but not enough to know what's actually in them."

Star blinked at her.

Moon frowned. "I discovered them years ago. I didn't know what they were, the handwriting was too difficult to read, and a cursory discovery spell revealed they were more than a century old. So I filed them away and put them out of my mind."

"Hmph."

"Also." Moon pointed at the book. "Given that those belong to that book, I'm retroactively classifying it as a level 0 secret. When all this is over, the book will need to be placed and kept in the Matriarch's room."

"I... Don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?"

Star looked at the pages. "Those pages. Do you think Eclipsa put them in the Matriarch's room on purpose?"

This was a question Moon wasn't prepared for. "I... suppose she must have. But what does that have to do with my decision?"

Star pointed at the book. "This book contains a lot of terrible secrets, but a lot of it was designed to undo the harm caused by the Artificers, and the Doom Curse. She chose to classify those pages, for reasons I guess I'll find out soon, but she specifically chose _not_ to classify the rest of this book. I think it's because she knew that Queens wouldn't be the only ones who would need it. I think she knew that it needed to be accessible to more than just the Royalty."

Moon narrowed her eyes. "Or maybe she left it as a trap, designed to spread further chaos and darkness long after she was gone!"

Star tried to read the expression on her mother's face.

There was a lot Star had learned about Eclipsa. About who she was as a Princess. The kind of person she _wanted_ to be as Queen. She didn't know anything about who Eclipsa was as a Queen, but now seeing the expression on her mother's face, she had an inkling.

"Mom... You don't actually believe that, do you?" Star was asking a rhetorical question; she already knew the answer.

Moon's eyes widened. Then, she looked away. "Star... Eclipsa did a lot of terrible things."

"I believe she did," Star said, looking directly at her mother. "But I also suspect... No. I _know_. She was in a situation that was even worse. If she did terrible things... It was to prevent something far more terrible from happening, wasn't it?"

Moon stayed quiet for a long time. "Star?" She turned to face Star. "I can't say anymore about Eclipsa, except that there's a good chance that you know more about it than I do."

Star observed the troubled expression on her mother's face.

"Anyways..." Star began, "thank you."

Before Moon could respond, Star hugged her. She smiled, and hugged her back.

Breaking off the hug, Moon walked to the door, and opened it. Marco nearly fell into the room, as he'd been leaning against the door, likely trying to listen in.

Moon frowned at Marco. "You know, if these doors weren't infallibly soundproof, and you actually _had_ heard something, I'd be fully within my legal right to have you executed."

Marco snapped to attention. "Yes queen."

Star looked up the hall, and saw that a messenger was standing at the end of the hall.

Moon looked up at her. "Yes, what is it?"

The woman stood at attention. "Your highness. The doctors told me to send for you."

"What for?"

"The human girl has woken up."

* * *

**Author's Note: There will be no Update on Sunday, 2017-04-02. Regular updates will resume on 2017-04-05.**


	28. DEVIANTS

"What were you guys feeding me, while I was locked up? Normally, when I try to eat food without the mirror, I can't get it down."

Star and Moon were sitting outside the room where Jackie was kept. Her family had been the first allowed in to see her, and Marco was allowed shortly after them. Star had the mirror and the book now, along with the pages that Moon had allowed her to hold on to (Moon hadn't reconsidered her decision to Classify the book) and she was careful to keep the mirror close to the door so that Marco would be okay.

Moon looked at the ceiling briefly. "We tested some stuff on Marco, with his consent. What we found was that we couldn't make anything that tasted 'good' to him, but if we made something completely flavorless, he was able to eat it just fine. So we took some rice, some corn—a lot of corn, actually—and a few other vegetables, and boiled them for several hours until they were basically a mushy paste."

Star nodded. "That was a good call. What about the water?"

"We loaded it up with some mineral supplements. I figured it was a good idea, since the food would have lost most of its nutritional content, and Marco reported that it actually improved the flavor, despite tasting… rather awful to the rest of us."

Moon made an expression that Star interpreted as evidence that she had tried it herself. Star also got an idea from her expression. "Did you try making something that tasted _awful_? Like, so terrible that no one normal could stomach eating it?"

"We did not. It didn't occur to us." Moon's expression changed though, as she was comprehending the same logic that Star had worked out. "Do you think that would be edible to the two of you?"

Star shrugged. "Maybe." She leaned back, reaching for her wand, only to realize it wasn't there.

Then she remembered.

Her Wand! She had dropped it when she passed out.

"Where's my wand?!" She asked, panicking slightly.

Moon smiled. "It's sitting on your bed. I was holding onto it while we observed you, but once we knew you weren't a threat, I figured that was as good a place as any for it."

Star sighed. "Okay. That's good."

They sat in silence, as the muffled sounds of Jackie, Marco, and her family drifted incomprehensibly into the hallway.

"Hey, I have a question." Star said quietly, staring forwards.

"What would that be?"

"Did you know that Eclipsa was gay? Or at least not straight?"

Moon looked around to make sure no civilians were in earshot. "I knew she wasn't straight. I didn't know that she had any female lovers."

Star looked at the floor. "So she kept Lily a secret then."

Moon sounded grieved. "Mewnie was... Is... a very traditional, conservative state. She trusted future queens to respect her choices, which is why I knew in the first place; she wrote about it in documents in the Room. But she had no faith that the people of Mewnie would accept her. I sometimes wonder if..." Moon shook her head. "Level 0."

"If..." Star began, not sure how to phrase her words. "If the people today thought that I wasn't straight... How do you think they'd accept me?"

Moon suddenly looked concerned. "Star, is there something you want to tell me?"

Star waved her hand. "No, no, I..."

The truth was that it wasn't something Star had ever thought about. She'd been raised in a society where the default was that girls liked boys, and boys liked girls. She'd seen the lineage of queens, going back generations, all of which had taken up husbands, and never questioned for a second that someday she, too, would find a nice, handsome man to take as her king.

She loved Marco; that much was never in dispute. But despite that, or maybe _because_ of that, she'd never once thought about whether she could love another girl. Starfan had once offered that she 'had a crush on her', and at the time, she'd treated it like a playful joke, even as it went unchallenged by the party 'game' they had been playing. Now, she was suddenly wondering if that admission had been sincere, and if so, whether she could see herself being happy with a girl like her.

And it wasn't like Marco was the model of a 'male specimen' to begin with. He'd looked so cute when they were invading St. Olgas, him in his poofy princess dress. She'd had at least one fantasy where he was wearing that dress, who was to say she wouldn't love him if that was how he self-identified?

"I guess it's not really something I've ever thought about much," was the line Star settled on. "I'm just curious, given what Eclipsa was going through, and what we don't yet know about her, whether I would have faced the same troubles she did, romantically speaking."

Star looked up at her mother, and saw that she had a troubled look on her face. "Honey, you know that your father and I would accept you, no matter what kind of person you love."

"But that's not what I asked," Star replied.

Moon sighed. "I... I don't know, Star. I'd like to think the people would accept you; and I'm sure many would! Producing an heir isn't a problem: Mewnie law has allowed adoption to legally carry the royal line for about a century, and even if it didn't... Well, there's other ways to produce an heir." Moon looked slightly uncomfortable by this train of thought. "But I don't know if the people would accept you."

Star crossed her feet. "That's kind of an answer, in its own right, don't you think?" She said, echoing Marco's sentiment from a week ago. "Not knowing that they would kind of sounds like a pretty clear sign they wouldn't."

Moon gravely shook her head. "I just don't know."

The door opened. Jackie's family exited the room, and gathered in a corner of the hallway away from where Star and Moon were sitting. There were a few angry glares in Star's direction.

"Excuse me," Moon said, as she stood up to go talk with the family.

Marco exited the room, and looked at Star. "Hey."

"How's she doing?" Star asked, standing up.

Marco smiled. "She's positive." He frowned slightly, though, and then said, "she, uh, said she doesn't want to talk to you right now."

Star gulped and nodded. "That's understandable. Did you tell her I was sorry?"

"I did. She didn't really react."

"O-oh."

Marco sighed. "So what now?"

Star pointed to the papers she'd received from her mom. "Provisionally, mom is letting us see some top-secret stuff, for the duration of the time we spend curing you. Some of them are some of the missing pages from Eclipsa's book."

Marco's eyes widened. "Wow."

"Also... She told you that you're going to stay with us for the next month or so?"

Marco nodded. "They put a second bed in your bedroom, and setup separate changing areas so that we have privacy from each other."

Star felt her heart skip a beat. "I... our parents were okay with that?"

"Well, because of the circumstances..." Marco glanced at the mirror. "Plus, my parents testified that we never got into any, uh, 'weirdness', and that there's no problem with us sleeping in the same room."

Star nodded slightly too forcefully.

"Plus, they set up the bedroom next to yours to house my parents, so, you know."

"Yeah."

They both stood there awkwardly. Star signaled to her mother, who was watching the Lynn-Thomas family speak with one of the doctors.

Moon walked up to them. "What is it?"

"We'd like to get to work on this stuff," Star said, gesturing with the objects she was carrying. "Is it alright if we go?"

Moon nodded. "Yeah. Keep me informed, I'll let you know if I can get anyone to help you."

They nodded, Marco bowed, and they set off in the direction of the hospital's front entrance.

"So... How's Mewnie?" Star asked. "I know you've been here before, but normally, you're only here for a few hours or so."

Marco looked around at the buildings as they exited the hospital and made their way towards the palace. "Well, I didn't have the mirror the first day, which was... interesting. After that... It kind of feels like I'm in Disney Land."

Star blinked. "I don't know what that is."

"Ah. Well, it's uh... The important thing is that everything feels unreal."

"Oh! Kind of like how Earth feels to me."

"I assume so."

Star looked at the gates of the palace.

The last time she had seen them, it was when she was peering on Eclipsa sneaking out of the palace to go to the forest. Curiously, the stones of the palace actually looked newer and less worn than they did in Eclipsa's time, yet they looked like the same stones. She quickly figured it must have been some kind of magic, performing upkeep on the palace.

"Um."

Star turned to Marco, who had spoken. "What?"

"I kind of have to ask, and I know it might be a touchy subject for you, but... Did you really not know that it was Jackie?"

Star shivered. "I didn't know when I was attacking her."

"But...?"

Star folded her arms, careful not to drop anything. "Once you turned the mirror back on, before I turned around, I knew who it had to be. The only person who would have gotten close to us when I was going crazy."

Marco looked troubled.

"Why?"

He sighed. "Jackie didn't admit it, but it felt like she felt like... like you attacking her was deliberate."

Star didn't look at him. Then, she stopped walking.

"Star?" Marco flinched, as he felt water on his shoulder.

She looked upwards at the cloudy sky, where rain was slowly starting to fall. "I don't want to say it."

Marco pursed his mouth.

"I didn't know it was her, but... I keep thinking about that moment. How I reacted when I saw it—her—grabbing you, and I keep wondering whether I really didn't know, or not."

She looked at Marco, who had a frightened look on his face. "Star..."

"You figured it out before me, didn't you? When she got close enough to touch you... Even if you didn't know it for sure, yet, you knew something was wrong right?"

"I did, but..."

Star closed her eyes and smiled ruefully. "On a conscious level, neither of us knew it was her. But I think we both knew on a subconscious level. You reacted by cautiously realizing that we didn't understand our circumstances, and I reacted by resorting to extreme violence."

Marco was quiet for a minute, as droplets occasionally fell on them. Finally, he spoke, "... Do you really hate her that much?"

Star opened her eyes. "No. I don't," she answered truthfully.

"Then...?"

She shifted her head forwards. "Come on. Let's get inside before it starts raining for real."


	29. CELEBRATION AND REVELRY

Star's bedroom, too, was unnerving to see.

Like the exterior of the palace, the last time Star had seen this room was in Eclipsa's time, when it was decorated the way she preferred. And the time before that, it was before she had left for Earth in the first place. She'd modeled her bedroom in Earth to resemble her bedroom at home, but there were always a few details she couldn't replicate, and on top of that, in the time since she'd been gone, things had been moved. The servants had kept the room relatively dusted, which meant moving objects around, and the room felt weirdly sterile.

Like her mother had said, her wand was sitting on her bed. Her bed, along with the new bed that Marco was going to use, was positioned to subdivide the room into thirds. It looked like they had needed to do that to ensure that both she and Marco would be in range of the Mirror at all times while sleeping.

"Has anyone other than my mom and you looked at the mirror?" Star asked Marco, as he flopped down on his bed.

He looked up at Star. "When the Queen took the mirror with her, she had the Magical High Commission examine it. I guess they verified that it didn't pose a threat to us? Beyond that, she didn't tell me anything else about what they determined from it."

Star sighed. "Fair enough." She tossed the book and the papers onto her bed. "So what I _want_ to ask is 'what part of Eclipsa's story should we look at next?' but... Given where it left off..."

Marco nodded gravely. "How badly do we need to know what happened in that basement?"

"I mean, the big mystery we're searching for is the Iris Experiment. Finding that out is pretty key to figuring out how to cure us. I'm going to go over the missing pages later, when I get a chance," she said, pointing at the stack on her bed, "but since the Iris Experiment pages were burned out of the book, it's unlikely any of them will contain the information we need. Meanwhile, if the Iris Experiment was something that happened in that basement, it would behoove us to investigate fully."

Marco curled up. "That's true."

"Fortunately!" Star said, a slight smile on her face. "I don't think that's going to be a problem. Because everything I've read, from the context at least, makes the Iris Experiment sound like something Eclipsa planned herself. More importantly, since the 'Iris' part of that name almost certainly refers to the mirror—an object she didn't take with her when she went there—it's really unlikely that the experiment took place in that basement. At least not at that time."

Marco breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, what I'm going to propose we look at is whatever immediately happened after Eclipsa left the Artificer's Guild that day."

"That makes sense."

Star held up the mirror. "Mirror?"

The scene transformed around them, to the exterior of a building inside the Mewnie Castle that Star didn't recognize. Looking around, it seemed that this building stood on the site of a fair that Star used to attend on a yearly basis when she was younger. _So this building doesn't exist anymore_ , Star pondered.

No sooner had that thought occurred to her than the doors of this building slammed open. An old man, partially disrobed, was tossed out of the building, falling face-first onto the gravel. Eclipsa stormed out, her expression livid. As this unfolded, Royal guards began to spill out of the nearby buildings, observing this scuffle. Eclipsa barked orders to the guards, "Arrest all of them! This man, and every adult inside that building! Find the children they've been keeping in there, and get them to safekeeping. Get a move on!"

The guards hesitated for almost half a minute, then slowly they began to obey Eclipsa's orders.

Star noticed the hesitation of the guards. If any of the Mewnie Royal Guards had hesitated an order from her as long as they did, they probably would have gotten yelled at by her mother.

It didn't take long for the guards to start emerging from the building, Artificers in tow, their hands tied and their faces stony. A few of the men (and one of the women) were visibly exposed, and both Marco and Star shielded their eyes at the sight.

One of the Royal Guard Captains approached Eclipsa. "Your highness. What crimes are these men being arrested for?"

"All of the adults, not just the men," Eclipsa said in a snippy tone. "And the crimes are, among other things, Luring and Kidnapping of Children, and Sexual Assault of Children."

The Captain gave a strange look at Eclipsa, which Star read as disrespectful. "I don't see any children."

Eclipsa pointed angrily at the doors of the Guild, and as she did so, one of the Royal Guards emerged from the building with a young girl in tow, her body covered up by a blanket.

When the girl saw the bright sunlight, she was visibly blinded, and it almost looked like she was on the verge of an anxiety attack brought on by seeing sunlight.

Eclipsa, seeing the girl, shut her eyes and turned back to the Captain before opening them. "There's more than just her. I caught them in the _act_ ," she said, her voice sounding envenomed on her last syllable.

The captain narrowed his eyes. "I see." He turned to some of the other Royal Guards. "You heard the princess! Get these men taken to the royal jail, get those children to the nearest hospital."

"A Regular Jail."

The captain turned to Eclipsa. "What?"

She gritted her teeth. "They don't deserve the Royal Jail. Take them outside the castle and lock them up in one of the jails out there."

The Captain looked irritated. "A cell outside the castle won't hold this many people."

"Then use multiple cells."

"Your highness..."

Eclipsa's eyes locked onto his. "That was an order."

The Captain nodded. "I understand." He began barking orders to the other Royal Guards.

Eclipsa walked towards a group of children that was slowly forming through the coordination of the Royal Guards. One of the kids was walking extremely slowly, and the guard escorting him yanked on his arm to get him to move.

"HEY!" Eclipsa yelled, "they're kids! Be gentle with them!" She softened her expression and knelt down in front of the group. "Alright, listen up. I need your names, and the names of your parents, so that we can contact them. I'm going to have the guards pass around pencils and paper for all of you. I need the older kids to help the younger kids who can't write or spell, you got that?"

The kids didn't look any less frightened of Eclipsa than they had simply being.

Eclipsa turned to one of the Mewman kids. "Can you tell me your name?"

He winced and looked away from Eclipsa.

Eclipsa looked at the other kids. "I promise you they aren't going to hurt you anymore. I'm going to make sure of that. Um, can any of your tell me your names?"

The Royal Guards approached Eclipsa. "We've done a thorough sweep of the building, we don't believe there's anyone else in there."

Eclipsa averted her gaze. "They're Artificers. Secret Doors and Passageways are basically their Raison D'être. Does anyone in your squad have basic magic detection abilities?"

"We found several passages, but no secret rooms. All the passages led to outside the Guild Housing."

Eclipsa looked skywards. "I'll do a second sweep to verify. Get these kids to the nearest hospital, and make sure they're seen by the doctors there." She narrowed her eyes. "Make sure they're taken care of. If I find out anyone in your squad has neglected them, they'll be joining the pedophiles in jail."

The guards exchanged a look, nodded, and began to direct the children somewhere else.

Star looked around the scene, and noticed that the Queen was approaching Eclipsa, looking very unhappy. "Princess Eclipsa," the Queen began, "I detected that you used your dimensional scissors. Would you care to tell me what the hell is going on here?"

Eclipsa tensed up, and turned to her mother, herself sporting a serious expression. "It was the Artificers. They were abducting children and keeping them inside their Guild Housing."

"Eclipsa! The Guild legally adopted those kids! You don't know that they were—"

Eclipsa grabbed the collar of her mother's dress, and brought her face very close to her own. The guards attending the Queen tensed up.

Eclipsa spoke very deliberately and slowly, "I. Caught. Two of them. Fucking. One of the Girls." She released her mother's collar. "I don't care if the adoptions were legal or not. Many of them are guilty of abusing these kids, and the ones that aren't are still guilty by association." She walked past the queen. "I have a few things I need to investigate. I'll be back."

Eclipsa began walking in the direction of the palace.

"They still looked Mewman," Marco said, after a long pause.

Star nodded.

"Could we just..."

Star listlessly addressed the Mirror, "Is it possible to seek directly to the Iris Experiment?"

"ERROR: THIS DEVICE CANNOT FIND INFORMATION RELATED TO THE IRIS EXPERIMENT."

"Right." Marco said, folding his arms. "Doesn't this bother you?"

Star looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Star, every time we ask the mirror to show us something like this, it's like... It gets under my _skin_. It's the same feeling I get when the mirror isn't masking away the awful stuff the curse is doing to my head. Every time I'm forced to think about what happened to those kids, I get this... _disgusting_... feeling. It starts in my gut and spreads throughout the rest of my body." He looked directly at Star. "Doesn't this get to you? Am I the only one who feels this way?"

Star glanced at Eclipsa, who was still visible from the mirror's vantage point. "When I was growing up, the shadow of Queen Eclipsa was one of the most vivid legends I was ever exposed to. My friends used to tell Ghost Stories about people and places associated with her. My parents would speak about her in hushed tones." She turned to look at Eclipsa's mother, who was carrying on an irate conversation with the Captain of the Royal Guards. "I don't know what kind of Queen she was. But when I see stuff like this, it's so... Dissonant... with everything I thought I knew about her. Like, I get how someone might have spun her into some kind of cackling villain—she's pretty terrifying when she's angry—but everything I've seen of her screams 'she's a good person, dealing with a terrible set of circumstances'."

Finally, Star turned to Marco. "Every time I see her, I'm reminded of that. And trying to associate everything she is with everything I thought she was is so taxing that I'm not as phased by the awful stuff she's dealing with."

Marco sighed. "I guess that's fair, but Star... Who's to say that dealing with all this stuff wasn't what turned her as she got older?"

"What?"

"I dunno, like a PTSD thing, or something? I mean, if she feels half as bad as I do—and I fully expect she feels a lot worse than me—this stuff would have to be tearing her up inside. And neither of us could possibly feel as bad as those kids, who... I don't even know what was going on there. Eclipsa tried to help them, but they didn't want to talk to her?"

"A lot of them were acting weird. Those Royal Guards were super... I dunno," Star said, scratching her head. "Like... Almost disrespectful of her. I mean, she wasn't being super nice to them either, but they're kind of supposed to be like, above it all." Glancing at the door, she added, "I've always tried to be as nice as possible to the Royal Guard, but they've never acted like that before."

"Could we see where Eclipsa went?" Marco asked of the mirror. "She said she was going to investigate the Guild Housing, but she's heading towards the palace."

The scene transitioned to Eclipsa's room, and a moment later, Eclipsa entered. She made a beeline directly for the mirror, and said, "I need a detailed map of the Artificer's Guild House, including explicit and obvious indicators of where secret passages and rooms are located."

When Star and Marco looked at the scene's version of the mirror, it simply said, "A DRAWN MAP OF THE ARTIFICER'S GUILD HOUSE."

"Alright," Eclipsa responded. "That should work." She left the room again, tucking the mirror into her clothes, concealing it.

Star nodded to this. "Okay, so she's going to help them make sure they didn't miss anything. What time is it in this scene?"

"ONE HOUR BEFORE SUNSET."

"Alright, does Eclipsa find anything interesting in the Guild Housing?"

"ERROR: UNABLE TO READ CORRUPT DATA."

Star rolled her eyes. "I thought we were supposed to be past that."

"DUE TO THE REPAIRS MADE ON THIS DEVICE, IT CAN RENDER SCENE DATA TO YOU WITHOUT PERSISTENT CORRUPTION IN THE PRESENTATION. ACTIVE ANALYSIS OF THIS DATA, HOWEVER, IS LIMITED TO REAL-TIME ANALYSIS ON PRESENTLY ACCESSED INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS OF CACHED DATA, AS RANDOM-ACCESS ANALYSIS REQUIRES USE OF THIS DEVICE'S DAMAGED MODULES."

Star sighed.

"Hey, Star?"

She turned to Marco.

"I'm going to go talk to my parents for a little while."

Star glanced at where the mirror would be if the scene weren't replacing its image.

"I won't be gone long, but maybe you could work on digging through the missing pages from Eclipsa's journal?"

Star nodded. "Alright. End the scene."

The room returned to normal.

Marco picked up the mirror. "You know where to find me if things get out of hand, right?"

Star nodded, and sat down on her bed.

"Alright. See you in a little while."


	30. THE TRUE HERO

Star opened her eyes.

_41._

Last night, Marco ended up spending a lot more time with his parents than expected, so Star had a lot of time to figure out where the missing pages went.

The first section she identified were the missing pages at the end of the journal, filling in pages where the Doom Curse was described. The section still wasn't complete: some of the pages had clearly been burned out, and none of the pages she had access to had any sign of singeing or scorching. So Eclipsa had apparently deemed many pages unworthy of remaining in the journal, and of those "unworthy" pages, only a few deserved not to be burned.

* * *

_What was most... troubling... was how many of these Night Terrors contained imagery of sexual assault and other more heinous behavior. Even in victims who had healthy attitudes towards sex and sexuality. It took me a long time before I had made the connection: I'd picked the Artificers to perform the Iris Experiment, knowing how dangerous it was, because I wanted to punish them for the transgressions they had committed from their positions of power._

_So in becoming abominations, they had found new ways to commit horrific acts of violation and degradation. The irony didn't escape me. My takeaway is that I should have killed the lot of them when I had the chance. Be rid of this whole wretched experiment once and for all, and them with it. I might yet have a chance, and make no mistake, if I get the opportunity to kill the last of them, I'm going to take it._

_At any rate, it's clear that these vices are a part of the curse._

_The second act of the Doom Curse is subtle, at first. With the victim's mind weakened, the curse begins to assault their senses. Food, even the most delightful of treats, begins to take on a sour taste, eventually progressing to the point where late in act three, even the most delicious of food tastes rotten and toxic in their mouths. Their hearing gets distorted, to the point where the natural language of their peers becomes unintelligible garbage. The hallucinations become more dramatic, to the point where they see horrific images in broad daylight on their friends and family._

_Their most negative emotions get amplified in their heads. People who mildly annoyed them become intolerable and they rush to emotional, sometimes even violent outbursts at the targets of their ire. We had more than one occasion where one of the victims began violently attacking their loved ones, and we concluded early on that we had to keep them in observation._

_Late in act two, as their senses are being overtaken, the world through their eyes begins to transform. Familiar settings and objects become foreign and decrepit, and in the beginning of act three, this moves to the revolting. One victim late in the delirium brought on by a particularly long-lasting Doom Curse described everything she saw as made out of flesh. Red, twisting, sinewy limbs composing the foundations of buildings. Their friends and family turned into abominations not unlike the appearance of an Artificer. Their own clothes burbling and wriggling against their flesh. We had only a few victims who didn't eventually resort to tearing off their clothes to spare themselves the anguish of feeling molested by their own clothing. This, too, is suggestive of the vices of the Artificers being exerted upon their victims._

_What happens beyond this point largely depends on that second part of the Doom Curse: an affliction of Fate. This is also where things get a bit technical._

_A Doom Curse can be split among multiple victims. This is precisely what happens when an Artificer casts the Doom Curse in the presence of multiple victims. All of the above symptoms affect each of the afflicted roughly equally, though as I've mentioned, there's significant variation based on other factors._

_But._

* * *

Most of the information wasn't anything new, or at least nothing that Star and Marco hadn't already worked out. But there was a key phrase that Star found interesting: " _I'd picked the Artificers to perform the Iris_ _E_ _xperiment_ ".

That suggested that once the Artificers had been pushed through the legal system, Eclipsa was able to pass down their sentence herself. That... Didn't make a lot of sense. Star didn't have that kind of authority herself, and as far as she was aware, the only person who _might_ have that kind of power would be her mother, and even then, she was pretty sure the Mewnie Constitution forbade the Queen from presiding over any trial where the crime was non-treasonous. And even if she did have that kind of authority, who would have gone along with something so horrible.

One Answer. Many more Questions.

The next set of pages didn't seem to have a section dedicated to them in the Journal—or if they did, the headers themselves had been burned out—and it didn't take long for Star to realize why. They were... Rather less than eloquent, and much less than professional.

* * *

_What makes a Monster different from a Mewman?_

_That's what I've been trying to figure out this whole time, I think._

_Monsters are lazy._

_Monsters are stupid._

_Monsters are uneducated._

_Monsters are uncultured._

_Monsters are degenerate._

_Monsters are blasphemous._

_Monsters are crafty._

_Monsters are deceitful._

_Monsters are violent._

_Monsters are dangerous._

_Monsters are brutal._

_Monsters are uncivilized._

_Monsters are cannibals._

_Monsters are rapists._

_Monsters are warmongers._

_Monsters are terrorists._

_So, all of that taken into stride, I have to ask: if all of that is true—and I'll certainly entertain the notion that it is—what, exactly, makes them different from us?_

_When I was about twelve, when I was still in school, there was a day where the alarms went off, really loudly. At first, I thought it was a fire alarm, but within a few minutes, the teacher told us to stay in the classroom._

_A Monster had been spotted on the premises._

_The lights were extinguished, and we sat in the classroom for about half an hour, before we were told that the school was safe, and that we could return to our learning._

_For the rest of the day, I didn't think about it. But that night, Lily and a bunch of our friends were sneaking out, and of course I snuck out with them. There's two things I remember that night. The first was that Lily had a new dress on, that sparkled in the moonlight. It was a milky blue color. I didn't know about her family's financial situation then; if I had, I would have asked where she had gotten it from. Come to think of it, I still haven't._

_The second thing I remember from that night was that we found the Monster._

_He was about our height, and was vicious-looking. Rows upon rows of teeth. Eyes like a snake. Sharp claws on its paws._

_I should have found it weird how easy it was to corner him. I remember thinking about how he walked funny. I didn't know what to make of it._

_Well. Not then, anyways._

_At first, we didn't know what to do. Lily wanted to pretend we didn't see him. She wanted to just go off in another direction. If we never saw him, then he wasn't our problem, right?_

_I should have listened to her._

_But I was the Princess of Mewnie._

_And Monsters were our enemy._

_And so I made my first Royal Proclamation._

_It wasn't a real Proclamation, but my friends treated it like it was._

_We started just poking him with sticks. I didn't question the fact that he wasn't fighting back. He kept trying to run away, but we kept cornering him._

_And then I said it:_

" _It's Mewnie Independence Day!"_

_One of the kids found a large branch. Then two more._

_And then we just started beating him._

_Over._

_And Over._

_And Over._

_It was fun. We started daring each other to hit twice as hard._

_We heard a Crunch._

_He wasn't moving, and the ground was turning a bright shade of orange, from the blood. I guess those monsters have luminescent blood for some reason._

_I declared victory._

_But even as I did so, I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what was wrong, just that something wasn't okay._

_Two days later, it was in the morning Newspapers: "VICIOUS MONSTER SLAIN"._

_The image of the corpse was paraded around on the morning news. I read past the headline, and my blood froze: the Monster we had slain was a child._

_We had killed a child. And when I thought back, I suddenly realized why he had been walking funny: he had been limping. That was the walk of a limping child._

_We found a crippled child, and killed him. He wasn't running around trying to find a way to strike at us, he was running for his life._

_I panicked, afraid someone would find out what I had done.._

_The next day, one of our friends told their parents, and soon it got out that Princess Eclipsa had killed a Monster._

_I locked myself away in my room, terrified for the consequences. Eventually, the Queen and King entered my room._

_They knew what I had done._

…

_**I. Was Hailed. As. A Fucking Hero.** _

_I murdered a fucking child in cold blood, not even knowing what I was doing, and the Kingdom hailed me as the best princess they could have hoped for._

_Now my face was being paraded around the Kingdom: Eclipsa, slayer of Monsters._

_The people loved me._

_For murdering a child._

_Before that night, I was worried that one day Monsters would attack Mewnie, overrun our borders, and destroy us from within._

_But that night, and the nights that followed, I realized I was wrong._

_The Monsters will never destroy our kingdom._

_Because they can't._

_Because Mewnie is already dead._

_The only reason any of us are still alive is because its vital organs continue to function, not realizing it._

_I know that Mewnie is dead because everything that Mewnie stands for: the sanctity of life, the prosperity of its people: it's all been destroyed._

_I figured that out that night. That only a truly damned people would celebrate what I had done._

_But I'm a damn fool._

_And somehow, that didn't stick._

_Which is why I'm now sitting here, shocked and numb at what just happened._

_We have a court system that doesn't protect its people. We have a queen that doesn't protect the vulnerable._

_So how are we different from Monsters?_

_I finally found the answer._

_We aren't._

_Mewmans are lazy._

_Mewmans are stupid._

_Mewmans are uneducated._

_Mewmans are uncultured._

_Mewmans are degenerate._

_Mewmans are blasphemous._

_Mewmans are crafty._

_Mewmans are deceitful._

_Mewmans are violent._

_Mewmans are dangerous._

_Mewmans are brutal._

_Mewmans are uncivilized._

_Mewmans are cannibals._

_Mewmans are rapists._

_Mewmans are warmongers._

_Mewmans are terrorists._

_So I have a crossroads in front of me. Down one path, I set aside my morality and acquiesce. I become the perfect tyrant that my mother wants me to be, that my people expect of me, that my government will respect from me. It would be so easy._

_Down the other path, lies chaos and destruction. I accept that nothing I do, that anyone could do, could save this land, and I burn it to the ground. I scorch every last wicked Mewman from this land, until nothing remains. I let whatever grows in its place flourish, assuredly far better than what came before._

_That, too, would be easy._

_I have the Wand._

_I have the scissors._

_I have the Iris._

_Nothing and no one could stop me._

_So why haven't I?_

* * *

At first, Star thought that was the end of the section, and began to second-guess her new-found skepticism towards the old stories told about Eclipsa. Until she found the one last page.

* * *

_Because I love my people._

_Deep down, as much as I hate their ignorance, I don't hate them. I can't. Because they didn't ask for this._

_Deep down, I know that if Mewnie had a truly just and wise Queen, if the people were truly prosperous... They would open their minds. They would open their hearts. They wouldn't settle for the rage and self-righteous panacea of their bigotries and vices._

_No._

_There are not two paths._

_There are three._

_I have an idea._

* * *

Try as she might, Star couldn't find any more pages associated with this.


	31. VINDICATION

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

**I want to assure my readers that this story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real life persons, places, events, or concepts are entirely coincidental, and most definitely the product of an inferior mind whose pattern-matching abilities are scanning Chaos and perceiving Structure where none exists. If it seems like there's a political bias being presented in this story, it's only because you are a Partisan hack who can't think outside your tiny, underdeveloped brain. If it seems like there's a message being presented, it's only because your stunted psychology is projecting your own insecurities and vulnerabilities onto this text.**

**This story is not saying anything. Just shut off your brain and absorb it, you worthless sheep.**

**And as always, thanks for reading. I love you all! ^_^**

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

* * *

"Find anything yet?" Star asked Marco.

She was sitting on her bed, reviewing the missing journal pages. The prior night, they had briefly discussed what Star had found, especially the pages associated with Eclipsa's childhood, but Marco had been too tired to seriously talk about it.

"No. Just a lot of Eclipsa sitting in her room, practicing magic and occasionally hanging out with Lily."

Star wasn't sure how to feel about it. Eclipsa did something truly terrible, but of the people she was surrounded by, she was the only one who seemed to _know_ it was a bad thing. Maybe Lily understood, but no one else did.

If you do a bad thing, but you feel guilty about it and everyone else celebrates you for it, are you actually any worse than them?

If it were up to Eclipsa's mother, or any of her friends that weren't Lily, they would have encouraged Eclipsa to kill more monsters, adult or otherwise. Because they thought it was a good thing to do.

Star shivered.

Marco hadn't had much of a reaction to it, but she felt disgusting. And she knew why: because that was her. A few years ago, she was doing the same kinds of things as Eclipsa. Star couldn't remember actively killing anyone: just battering up a lot of Monsters.

But realistically, what made her any better? Eclipsa realized what she had been doing was wrong. Sitting here now, Star was still trying to rationalize her own behavior.

"I might actually be worse than Eclipsa," Star whispered to herself.

"Hmm?" Marco asked, looking at her.

"Nothing. Just thinking to myself."

Star looked at Marco, and sighed, watching the fastforwarded scene on the face of the mirror.

"I don't get it," Star began, "she got the Artificers arrested. Why hasn't anything else happened?"

Marco shrugged. "If Mewman courts are anything like Earth courts, it probably took awhile before they got a court date." He turned to Star. "Why did you ask me to look for the Court day, anyways?"

Star flipped through the pages associated with Eclipsa's rant. "There's a line here that stuck out to me: ' _But I'm a damn fool. And somehow, that didn't stick. Which is why I'm now sitting here, shocked and numb at what just happened._ ' It's not clear from context what she's talking about, but this is written on the same kind of paper used in the journal proper, and there's no major difference between the handwriting here and in the journal. So my guess is that it was written around the same time."

"What are we supposed to find, though?"

Star thought back to a conversation she and Janna had once had, and shuddered. "I don't know, but I wonder if..."

"Star?"

"' _We have a court system that doesn't protect its people. We have a queen that doesn't protect the vulnerable._ _'"_ Star said, echoing the book. "Maybe… that there's a difference between being right, and being able to prove it."

"I thought she caught them in the act? How would―" his voice trailed off. "Wait. Something's happening."

Star leaped up from her bed. "What is it?"

"They look like they're in a courtroom of some kind. This might be it."

"Mirror. Show us this scene."

The scene formed around them. Star immediately recognized it as one of the many courtrooms in Mewnie's main Castle. Eclipsa was sitting up front in what she presumed was a space for the witnesses. She had a notepad, the paper of which was clearly the same material as the paper used to make up the journal. Her scissors were tucked in a sleeve on her waist, and her wand in another sleeve on the other side of her body. She was dressed formally, in a suit.

Star shivered slightly, noticing that it resembled the kind of suit that Toffee wore. "How much time passed between when she arrested them and now?"

"ELEVEN MILLION, EIGHT-HUNDRED-THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND, EIGHT-HUNDRED."

Star rolled her eyes. "How many months is that?"

"It's like four or five," Marco said.

Shortly after him, the mirror responded with "APPROXIMATELY FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS."

"Okay."

A Mewman man sat at the stand, reviewing some documents, while 12 men sat in the Jury box, deliberating amongst themselves.

Star knew a few things about the Mewnie court system. For the vast majority of criminal trials, they used Trial by Jury. The only exception Star knew about would be any Trial where a death sentence was expected to be issued, if the defendant were found guilty. In those trials, there was no judge and no jury: it was presided over by the Queen alone, because by Mewnie law, only the Queen could hand down Execution sentences.

Star, then, wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Surely what the Artificers had done was enough to put a death sentence on the table, right? Or maybe they needed to be found guilty of their crimes first before being considered for Execution?

These were difficult questions she was going to have to bring up with her mother at some point.

"Hey mirror, what are the contents of that notepad?" Star asked.

"THE NOTEPAD CONTAINS ONLY A SINGLE PAGE OF CONTENT, UPON WHICH ARE SIMPLY SCRAWLED THE WORDS ' _FUCK THEM UP, HONEY! - LILY'_."

"Fair enough."

The Judge rapped his gavel. "Attention. Please bring out the Defendants."

Marco blinked. "Don't courts try people one at a time?"

Star shrugged. "I don't know enough about Mewnie Judicial law."

"THE TRYING AND SENTENCING OF MULTIPLE PARTIES AS AN AGGREGATE IS LEGAL IN THE MEWNIE COURT SYSTEM."

"Cool, thanks, that's—"

Star paused for a second.

Did the mirror interpret that as a query? She hadn't intentionally tried to ask the mirror about the legality of the situation, and every time prior, the mirror had responded only when the explicit intent of the person talking had been to ask a question. Up until now, the mirror had always been good at 'reading between the lines', but it had never offered up its analysis' or conjectures without being asked to.

She eyed the position where the mirror would have been, were the scene not rendering over it, and then paid attention to what was happening. The various members of the Artificer's Guild, mostly composed of old men (though there were a few among them that were neither old nor male) filed into the room, followed by several well-dressed men who were clearly identified as Lawyers.

"You," the judge began, "the active members of the Mewnie Kingdom Royal Artificer's Guild, have been charged with multiple counts of abduction, multiple counts of public indecency, and one charge of aggravated assault against a Royal Guard. How do you plead?"

A woman in a grey jumpsuit, with two twintails of red hair, stood up from the front row of the Artificers. "Naturally, we plead not guilty."

Star turned to Marco. "Hang on. 'abduction, public indecency, and aggravated assault'? What is going on?"

Marco gave her a helpless look. "How would I know?"

She turned back to the scene, and noticed that Eclipsa was having a much worse reaction. She'd crumpled up the paper in her hand, and was trembling in her seat.

"Alright," the Judge continued, "today's court session will consist of—"

"Excuse me!"

Eclipsa had stood up, her fists balled at her sides.

"Your highness, it's a violation of procedure for a Witness to speak out of turn."

Eclipsa pointed at the group of Artificers. "You haven't read off all the charges. Is there supposed to be a separate—"

The Judge rolled his eyes. "Your Highness, please do not speak out of turn. You will be allowed to speak when the Prosecution calls you to the stand."

Eclipsa glared at the Judge, and then sat back down.

What followed for the next half hour were a series of court formalities. One after the other, the Artificers' names were called out, they were called to the Stand to affirm their identities, and they were made to swear that they would speak the truth.

Star flopped backwards. "I'd fast-forward through this stuff, but how would we even tell when things had changed?"

"We could just tell it to fast-forward until Eclipsa is called to testify."

Star blinked. "That's a good idea. Mirror, fast-forward until Eclipsa is sitting in the Stand," Star ordered, careful to avoid any instructions that would cause the mirror to try to look ahead, which would make the request impossible.

The scene whipped by in a blur, until Eclipsa suddenly got up from her seat and sat next to the Judge, causing the scene to return to normal speed.

The prosecution lawyer approached Eclipsa. "Your highness. Can you please tell us what you observed when you entered the Artificer's Guild?"

Eclipsa nodded, and speaking very quickly, she began, "I used my Dimensional Scissors to enter the building, placing myself in the first level basement of the Guild Housing. I immediately stumbled upon those two men," she said, pointing precisely at two older men who were seated off to the side of the cluster of Artificers, "raping a young girl." She furrowed her brow. "I pulled them off of her, and called up the Royal Guards before dragging them out of the building."

This caused a stir among the audience, and the Judge rapped his gavel several times.

"When you were inside the building, did you see any evidence that the child had been abducted?"

"Well—"

"Objection!" One of the lawyers for the Artificers called out. "The prosecution is asking inappropriate questions of the Eye Witness."

"Sustained," the Judge said very quickly.

The Prosecution Lawyer looked unnerved. "Excuse me, I fail to see how I'm asking an inappropriate question."

The Judge looked at the lawyer with a bored expression on his face. "Her Highness has been called here as an Eye Witness, not an Expert Witness. It's inappropriate to ask her to present a scholarly opinion on the nature of any evidence she might have observed. Please have her stick to the facts."

Eclipsa growled quietly.

The prosecution lawyer turned to Eclipsa with a grave look on her face. "Your Highness, what else did you observe inside the Artificer's Guild Housing?"

"Objection! Prosecution is leading the witness!"

"Sustained."

The prosecution lawyer whipped around. "What?! How is that leading the witness?"

The Judge rolled his eyes. "If the witness had seen anything else, they would have offered it the first time you asked that question."

"Her Highness." The lawyer said, gritting their teeth.

"Right." The Judge glanced at Eclipsa. "Her Highness."

The lawyer turned to the other Prosecution Lawyer and they briefly exchanged a glance. "Your highness," she said, "can you identify the people you saw that day?"

Eclipsa rattled off a list of names corresponding to roughly half of the Artificers seated in the court room.

"Thank you. The Prosecution yields their time to the Defense."

As one of the Defense Lawyers stood up, the lawyer leaned in towards Eclipsa. "I'm sorry, Eclipsa."

Eclipsa had a furious look on her face, but whispered back, "it's not your fault."

She sat down as the other lawyer approached Eclipsa. "Your Highness, could you please tell me, as a member of the Mewnie Government, about the Warrant you requested to enter the Artificer Guild Housing?"

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "I didn't get a warrant. I'm the princess, I'm entitled to enter any building inside the Castle without a warrant."

The lawyer turned to the Judge. "Let the record show that Her Highness confirmed that entry took place without a warrant."

Eclipsa blinked. "I didn't need one. The Artificer Guild House—"

The Judge rapped his gavel. "Your Highness, please constrain all your answers to the questions asked of you."

The Defense Lawyer turned back to Eclipsa. "Did anyone else accompany you inside the Guild Housing?"

"No, I went there alone."

"So there is no one else who can corroborate what you witnessed inside the Guild Housing?"

Eclipsa's eyes widened. "The Royal Guards on the scene. Many of them accompanied me inside the Guild Housing after—"

"Excuse me, Your Highness, I thought you said that you entered the building alone."

"I—"

"A reminder, Your Highness, that you are under oath." The Judge said.

"You didn't let me finish! The first time I entered the building, I was alone, I brought the guards with me when I reentered the building afterwards."

"Objection!" The woman who had been questioning Eclipsa before spoke up. "The defense is clearly trying to distort Her Highness' testimony!"

The Defense Lawyer calmly turned to the Judge. "Her Highness is extremely close to these proceedings, and it is our opinion that she should be treated as a Hostile Witness, and thus subject to greater scrutiny than would normally be applied to a witness."

The Judge glanced at Eclipsa. "Objection Overruled."

"Wh...!" The Prosecution Lawyer stood speechless, gesturing at the stand.

"Please sit down," the Judge ordered.

The Defense Lawyer turned to Eclipsa once more. "I have no further questions at this time."

"Very well," the Judge said. "We will resume proceedings at the same time tomorrow."

"Stop." Marco said, standing up.

The scene froze.

"Turn off the scene."

Star's palace bedroom returned to view.

"Marco? What's up?"

He walked over to one of the walls. "I... I..."

"Marco?"

"DAMN IT!" He slammed his fist into the wall, and star winced seeing the force with which his hand collided with the wall.

"What's the matter?" She ran up to him.

He was visibly shaking. "I'm sorry, I just... Seeing them doing that, it's..."

Star shivered. "I know."

"What the hell is going on?! Was the judge getting paid off or something?"

Star glanced at the mirror. "Mirror?"

"THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THE JUDGE WAS BEING MANIPULATED BY BRIBERY OR ANY OTHER KIND OF MIND-ALTERING EFFECT."

"Then what! Was that?!"

"THE JUDGE WAS MAKING CALLS ACCORDING TO HIS BEST JUDGMENT."

Marco scowled. "Then his judgment was wrong."

Star addressed the mirror. "What day did that take place?"

The mirror rattled off a date.

"And what day was..." she lept to her bed and grabbed the papers associated with Eclipsa's rant. "... this wrote?"

The mirror rattled off a date that was a few weeks in the future.

"Are you able to skip ahead to that date and show us the courtroom proceedings on that day?"

The courtroom appeared again, with the same main characters as before, though the audience had changed. At first, Star couldn't find Eclipsa, until she realized that Eclipsa was in the back of the audience, standing near the door.

Star gasped: Eclipsa was wearing the outfit she had seen in the tapestry depicting her, with the black dress and the large hat.

The Jury were in the process of filing into the room. "Have you reached a verdict?" The Judge asked.

Star worked it out: "Oh no."

"We find the defense Not Guilty."


	32. MOTHER'S WISDOM

Day 40.

"Alright, I think this is what I'm looking for."

Marco was sitting out from the research today, so it was just Star. Marco laid on his bed, his back turned towards where Star was sitting, his hand on his phone, occasionally texting Jackie every few minutes or so.

Star was torn how to deal with him. On one hand, suffering through this stuff alone wasn't fun, especially since they'd gotten to the ugliest (...so far...) parts of Eclipsa's story. And while the task right now was just about getting caught up to the Iris Experiment so that she could see what the experiment did (and maybe replicate or reverse engineer it), it was easy to miss tiny details.

She glanced out the window.

She couldn't see out the window. The Black Fog had returned again.

For the briefest of seconds, Star had panicked, wondering whether the Creatures had returned again, until her memory caught up with her instincts. It remained incredibly unsettling to witness, but she knew, at least on a logical level, that neither she nor Marco were in danger anymore. Or ever were, at least in terms of their hallucinations.

Star sighed.

The other side of the problem with Marco was that it was really clear that he couldn't handle dealing with this story. It was too disturbing, too grotesque for him. Star briefly wondered if maybe Marco had an experience he hadn't shared that was making him less able to cope, but dismissed the notion pretty quickly. _He's not the one acting weird,_ Star reminded herself.

She hadn't been totally honest about her reaction to Eclipsa's story, when she talked about it with Marco.

She hadn't been lying when she said that fixating on the dissonance between Eclipsa's real self and Star's prior perception of her had taken up a lot of her mental effort. That was certainly a real, significant component of why the talk about sexual abuse wasn't "getting to her".

But there was a second reason that she didn't really want to think about, even with herself.

Ever since her Mewberty attack, her mind had been awash with a lot of feelings and urges, all of which had been confusing and disorienting. Her response to it, ever since, had been to compartmentalize it all and engage with it solely through detachment and aloof faux-intellectualism.

And it had worked. Perhaps a little too well. Engaging with it all through what she perceived to be a "purely objective" filter had spared her from engaging with the yucky emotional baggage, but it also meant being unable to engage with what Eclipsa was dealing with now. To gain peace of mind, she'd sacrificed her empathy.

And it was still working: it meant she could comprehend the awful things the Artificers had done without herself becoming too disturbed to function properly. But deep down, she also knew that this wasn't good for her. The longer she did this, the more numb she would get.

"Mirror, show me this scene. Make sure not to show it to Marco."

Later, after witnessing this scene, Star would end up wondering to herself if this kind of emotional distancing was what screwed up Eclipsa's mother so badly in the first place.

* * *

It took place in one of the gathering chambers, a few days after the first day of the trial. Eclipsa stormed into the room, looking furious. "WHAT. THE HELL."

The Queen was sitting at the head of a long table, with several men sitting to her sides along the table. She sighed dramatically when she saw Eclipsa enter the room. "Gentlemen, I suspect we'll have to reconvene at a later time. My daughter is in hysterics again."

As they got up, Eclipsa snarled at them, "Yes, make sure to dismiss them from the room, mom! You wouldn't want them to find out you're AIDING AND ABETTING PEDOPHILES, now would you?" she said, making sure to yell as loudly as possible on the significant words.

The Queen groaned. "What is this about, Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa stood in front of her mother. " _Abduction_ and _Public Indecency_? In what―POSSIBLE world―are those the only charges against those people?"

"Eclipsa." The Queen took a deep breath. "Those _people_ are the Mewnie Royal Artificers. Whatever crimes you think they're guilty of, they still deserve your respect." She paused. "Yes. I dismissed the Sexual Assault charges. Neither they nor the kingdom needs to deal with those kinds of outrageous accusations."

Eclipsa visibly shook. "I caught them. I physically pulled two of them off of a young girl."

"Oh come on." The Queen turned to clean some supplies off the table.

Eclipsa blinked. "Excuse me?"

"What are you trying to do, Eclipsa? Do you just hate them because you hate the kingdom? Or is this just your way of lashing out at me?"

"Wha… They didn't… I found out that they were abducting kids and abusing them! Why wouldn't I try to stop them?"

The Queen sighed, stopping what she was doing. "No, you didn't."

Eclipsa froze in place. "Are you saying I'm lying?"

There was a long pause, where Eclipsa stood, fuming, staring at her mother, while the Queen remained facing the table, her back to Eclipsa.

Eventually, The Queen turned around. She didn't look upset or angry, but instead looked wearied.

"Yes. You're lying to me."

Eclipsa's mouth hung open for a few seconds. When she finally spoke, she was quiet: "why… Would I lie about something like this?"

The Queen furrowed her brow. "Eclipsa, how do I explain this… I don't believe that you think you're lying to me. I believe that you think you're telling the truth, but that at your age, and your… political disposition, you just don't know what truth is."

Eclipsa's eyes widened. "That makes no sense."

The Queen gave a condescending smile to Eclipsa. "Well think about it, honey. All your friends are hysterical Feminists and Social Justice Zealots. They don't care about facts or truth or logic, they just want to be endlessly angry. So they go on about how we're mistreating Monsters, even though the reality is that Monsters are responsible for virtually all the crime in our society and that if Monsters would just learn to assimilate into our culture, they wouldn't be treated so bad. They act like women are oh so oppressed, but look: Mewnie is, and for a long time has, had a woman as its leader! How could we be oppressed as a gender if we're the ones running the kingdom?"

Eclipsa didn't say anything in response.

"See, if you actually think about this stuff logically, and not as a hysterical teenager, it all makes sense, right? I understand what you were thinking: you see these old guard power structures in Mewnie, and you say to yourself ' _Why are they so powerful? They must have cheated their way into power!'_ and because you believe it, you'll take anything as evidence, even if it doesn't really add up. Those men and women have been esteemed, respected members of Mewnian society since its conception. They create wondrous things that everyone in our society appreciates. Do you really think respected pillars of our society would do the kinds of things you're accusing them of?"

Eclipsa continued not saying anything.

The Queen tilted her head. "And think about what you're doing to the Kingdom. They've worked so hard for Mewnie, all this time. Their services are invaluable. Did you ever stop to think about how much these accusations would hurt us? Or them? How their livelihoods would be threatened? If they were formally charged with the kinds of accusations you leveled at them, they'd become social pariahs! Their friends and families would become suspicious of them, and even if they weren't convicted, they'd spend the rest of their lives with other people avoiding them, simply because of unfounded accusations. Many of those men and woman are heroes to the kingdom, and by accusing them of these things, you're tarnishing their image. Did you ever stop to think about the consequences of your actions?"

The Queen circled around Eclipsa. "I will fully concede to the possibility that one or two of those men acted _inappropriately,_ Eclipsa. Men at that age sometimes just act like boys, and boys will be boys, you know?. But if you go around accusing men of being rapists just because you don't like them, you're going to lose your credibility, and worse, you're going to make things harder for actual rape victims. Don't you see that?"

"And it's not just about them, Eclipsa. It's about you too. Do you really want to be known as a Queen who is constantly backstabbing your own nobles? If you can't trust them, they won't trust you, and you'll have a miserable time as Queen if you can't learn to get along with people you disagree with."

Eclipsa closed her eyes. "I see," she answered evasively.

"You see… what?"

"I see that I have a lot of thinking to do."

The Queen smiled. "That's good. Look, this is just a suggestion, but why don't you spend less time around those kids? I think they're a bad influence on you."

"I'll take that into consideration." Eclipsa stiffly turned around and walked towards the door.

"Are you still a witness in the case?"

"I plan to obey the Subpoena until they no longer need to ask me questions."

"Very well."

When Eclipsa left the room, she immediately began to walk slowly towards her room, her face stony.

After about a minute, her pace picked up.

Another minute, and she was jogging.

Her composure began to slip, and she carefully maintained her facial expression.

After another minute, she was running.

One more minute, and she was sprinting, down hallways, up stairs, towards her room.

She arrived at her door and opened it.

Lily was sitting on Eclipsa's bed, clearly anticipating Eclipsa's return.

"Hey. Did you find out what was… Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa's face remained expressionless, her eyes averted from Lily's face. "Please excuse me a moment." Her voice trembled.

"What?"

Eclipsa closed the door, and carefully took the Wand, Scissors, and Mirror and placed them on her desk.

Then, very deliberately, she turned to face Lily.

Tears were streaming down her face.

"Eclipsa…?"

Eclipsa walked up to Lily, and buried her face against Lily's neck.

Then, she began to scream.

A wailing, bloodcurdling shriek of anguish and fury.

Lily instinctively clasped her arms around Eclipsa, and held her close, which drowned out Eclipsa's screaming to a small degree.

Eclipsa's sobs came out staggered and haphazard. Sometimes, she'd open her mouth, but no noise would come out, save for a very faint wheezing. Then it would come back full force, the sound modulating rapidly as her body convulsed.

Lily placed her hand on the back of Eclipsa's head and slowly, deliberately, stroked her hair, lightly massaging Eclipsa's scalp through the hair.

After a while, Eclipsa went silent, her tears drenching Lily's shirt around the collar.

Finally, Eclipsa spoke, in a soft, timid voice, "what do I do?"

"Eclipsa... What happened?"

"One of two things is now true. Either my mother is deliberately covering up the Artificer's misdeeds, or she's swallowed her own bullshit so much that she believes she's protecting innocent men and women. Either way... I can't fight her. She's the Queen. So I don't know what to do."

Lily continued to hold Eclipsa. "I don't know either."

They sat for a minute in silence, before Eclipsa spoke again. "I had a terrible idea."

"What?"

Eclipsa adjusted herself so she could look at her wand. "I could go back to their Guild House. And I could..."

"Eclipsa."

"They wouldn't be able to stop me. Nothing is more powerful than that wand. Once every last of those wretched Artificers is dead, those kids would be safe."

Lily averted her gaze. "That is a terrible idea."

"I know, but...!"

"What would the Queen do if you did that? If you killed them, she'd have no choice but to have you tried for murder."

"Why would she bother!?" Eclipsa shouted. "I killed an innocent kid, and she wanted to give me a goddamn medal. But if I kill a bunch of pedophiles, I get executed? Sure, that makes sense!"

Lily shook her head. "I didn't say it made sense. I said that's what would happen."

Eclipsa gritted her teeth. "Then I'll fight her, too. I'll... I'll...!"

Lily didn't say anything, as Eclipsa began to cry again.

They sat, holding each other, for a long time, to the point where Star was about to ask the mirror to fast-forward through this, when Lily looked out the window and tapped Eclipsa a few times. "Hey. I need to get going home, before it gets dark."

Eclipsa released her grip on Lily, and she begun to stand up, but the moment she did, Eclipsa grabbed her wrist. "Wait," she said hoarsely. "Please stay with me, tonight."

Lily's eyes widened. "What? But if I'm caught here with you..."

Eclipsa shook her head. "I don't care. I need you."

Lily's expression softened. "My family will wonder where I am."

Eclipsa pointed to her wall mirror. "I jailbroke that thing years ago. I can disable the monitoring functions for a whole call. You can tell them you'll be here tonight without anyone else in the palace finding out."

Lily smiled. "Okay."

Lily made her way to the mirror, and with Eclipsa's instructions, she made a call home to her parents, informing them of where she was going to be for the night.

Once the call was over, they both got into pajamas (Lily borrowed one of Eclipsa's sets of pajamas, since their physiques were similar enough), and crawled into bed together. Eclipsa immediately put her arms around Lily and nestled her head up against the back of Lily's neck, hugging her tightly.

Eclipsa used a magic to extinguish the lights, and they laid there silently for a few more minutes.

"Hey Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa still sounded weak. "What?"

"I will support you no matter what. That's a promise I'm going to make to you."

"Thank you."

"But. I need you to promise me something in return."

"What?"

"Find a way to bring those people to justice without killing them. I think at this point, based on what you told me about the trial, I don't think it's possible to bring them to justice without breaking the law a small amount. But don't destroy yourself just to bring them down. Find a way to deal with them that your people will respect. You might have to break the law, but don't break your moral convictions."

Eclipsa shivered slightly. "I don't know if I can."

"Eclipsa. You're one of the most amazing people I know. I know that you are clever enough to do it. You told me, years ago, when you killed that Monster kid, that you vowed to never do anything like that ever again. That no matter what, as Princess or as Queen, you'd stop anything like that before it started. This is part of keeping that vow. So please."

After a minute passed, Eclipsa responded.

"Okay."


	33. LEGACY OF A TYRANT

Day 39.

One of the reliefs of Star and Marco sleeping in the same room was the fact that they could actually _sleep_. Much like they had discovered days ago, when Marco had slept in her bed overnight, them sleeping in vicinity of each other staved off the nightmares. At the distance they were sleeping at, it didn't make them go away _entirely_ , but it was enough to at least get a proper sleep overnight, and that helped. A lot.

Marco was still snoring when Star got out of bed, tiptoed to the mirror, and spoke to it as quietly as possible.

"Hey. So Marco and I have kinda been tethered to you for the last several days. Now, for various reasons, some of which you probably already know about, I don't mind that too much. But there's actually stuff I need to do without him, and I'm not just talking about using the restroom. I'd like to go talk to my mother for awhile, without him, but I can't take the mirror without disturbing him―and he's already not in a great place right now―and I can't leave the mirror here and understand anything she's saying. You've insisted before that you're forbidden from projecting anywhere beyond a certain radius of yourself, is that still true?"

"CORRECT. THE MAXIMUM RADIUS OF THIS DEVICE'S PROJECTION ABILITIES ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE."

"Alright, then… Is it possible for you to teach me how to perform a spell that would have the same kind of effect?"

"THERE IS NO SPELL THAT YOU CAN CAST AND MAINTAIN THAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO ACHIEVE THE SAME EFFECTS THAT THIS DEVICE IS PROVIDING. THE MAGICAL ENERGY COSTS ALONE WOULD EXCEED THE MAXIMUM OUTPUT OF BOTH YOURSELF AND YOUR WAND, BY MANY MAGNITUDES. HOWEVER, IF YOU WERE TO CAST A SPELL THAT ONLY MASKED A SINGLE ONE OF YOUR SENSES, THE POWER OF YOUR WAND WOULD BE SUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN THE SPELL. COMBINING YOUR INNATE POWER AND THE WAND WOULD FALL SHORT OF BEING POWERFUL ENOUGH TO COVER TWO SENSES."

Star sighed. "Okay, then… Realistically, the only thing I need is the ability to hear my mother. If I mask my sight, I won't be able to understand her, since I can't read lips. Maybe she could write things out, but… Ugh. And none of my other senses are super critical for this, so… Yeah. Alright. Give me a spell that will mask my hearing, the same as what you normally do for me."

The mirror laid out an extremely complex set of motions, verbal components, and mental instructions.

"That's… Really complicated." Star said, staring in awe at the spell.

"THERE EXIST FAR SIMPLER VERSIONS OF THIS SPELL, BUT THEY REQUIRE REAGENTS THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO IN THIS DIMENSION."

"Would they lower the magical energy costs of the spell?"

"NO. THEY WOULD SIMPLY MAKE THE SPELL EASIER TO CAST."

"Fine, fine." Star stood up. "Let's make this happen."

For the next several minutes, Star performed the incantation, trying as much as possible to make sure she didn't screw up a single one of the instructions. The wand glowed blue for a few seconds at the end of it.

"Did I screw anything up?"

"THE SPELL INVOCATION WAS 72% ACCURATE. YOU MAY OBSERVE A SMALL DEGREE OF AUDIO DISTORTION WHEN YOU LEAVE THE INFLUENCE OF THIS DEVICE, BUT IT SHOULD STILL BE TOLERABLE AND UNDERSTANDABLE FOR YOU. WHILE YOU MAINTAIN THIS SPELL, YOU WILL BE COMPLETELY UNABLE TO CAST ANY OTHER SPELL USING YOUR WAND, AS THIS SPELL IS USING THE FULL POWER OUTPUT OF YOUR WAND."

Star shrugged. "Alright." She set the mirror down on the night-stand that was equidistant from her bed and Marco's bed, and walked over to him. He still appeared to be sleeping. "I've got some stuff I have to do, so I'll be gone for a little while. Try to hang in there, okay? Maybe..." Star folded her arms, reluctant to say her next words, "maybe go visit Jackie. She's probably feeling a bit cooped up right now, in the hospital."

She then walked into her closet, switched her clothes, and carrying her wand, she left the room.

* * *

Star had forgotten how awful it was to walk around without the masking effects of the mirror.

Immediately, as the mirror's effects faded, the walls warped and twisted. No longer were they lattices of brick and metal, but now they were sinewy and tender. She wasn't walking through corridors anymore; she was walking through arteries. The people around her weren't people anymore, they were abominations. Stitched together corpses, with their limbs sticking out at agonizing angles and twisting in ways that should have made their bones snap.

"Oh, Star!"

The tinny voice of Angie Diaz caught her ear, from behind her. Angie was utterly unrecognizable, as the abomination!Angie was tall and lanky, her arm longer than the rest of her body, whose legs almost seemed to _scuttle_ when she moved. Her head twitched violently, almost like it was trying to look to the side, then snapping back into position, hundreds of times a minute. As she got close to Star, her stench, which was somehow even worse than the ambient stench of rotting flesh, caused Star to recoil in disgust.

Angie seemed to keep her distance. "Oh, Star, you don't have the mirror. Oh dear."

Her voice was distorted and grainy, but like the mirror had said, it was fully comprehensible and understandable. "It's okay, Mrs. Diaz, I can understand your speech."

"Oh! That's good, but..."

Star tried to force her face into a grin, hoping that that would be what Angie saw when she looked at Star. "Just don't get too close to me. I can hear fine, but all my other senses are still completely messed up."

"Where are you going, sweetie?" Angie asked.

A boil burst on Angie's forehead, and Star had to dodge a spray of pus. "I have some stuff I need to talk to my mother about. And I didn't want to bother Marco or take the mirror from him, so I'm going it alone."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

Angie's frame suddenly lurched violently, and began to rend itself in front of Star, reorganizing as it pulled itself inside-out, its skeleton fracturing and splitting apart, forming spikes around the new form she had taken on.

"Uhhm no offense, but the fewer people around me, the better. Knowing all the hallucinations are fake doesn't make it less, uh, horrifying to witness," she said, trying (and probably failing) to hide her horror at witnessing what Angie had just done.

"Alright. Maybe I'll go talk to Marco for a while."

"That might be good."

Star took off down the corridor, navigating carefully around the pile of pus that Angie had expelled, as it began to ferment and spread along the floor.

There were many people inside the palace today. Star, in only keeping track of how many days Marco had left, had lost track of how that time mapped to the real world. Hopefully, nothing important was happening today.

She made her way to the throne room, and saw someone standing near (but not in) the throne. "Hey."

The voice of her father greeted her. "Star, my dear! What brings you out here?"

"I'm looking for mom. Do you know where she is."

"Oh." Even through the distortion, Star could hear the disappointment in his voice. "She's in one of the gathering halls. Some kind of preparations or something, I don't really know..."

Star tried to smile, and said, "thanks."

She was going to turn around, but stopped.

Her father's abominable form was behaving funny. It moved almost like she was watching a choppy, low-framerate video, where instead of moving from place to place, it seemed to skip forwards, many times a second. Star was quickly forced to avert her eyes, as the effect was physically hurting to observe.

"What's the matter, dear?"

Star shielded her eyes. "I don't have the mirror, I left it with Marco. My only sense that's working is my hearing. Everything else is, well, awful."

"Oh dear."

"Thanks again. I'm gonna go find mom."

She left the room.

At this point, she suddenly found herself clinging to the tendrils hanging limply from the walls, as the floor was incredibly uneven, and she was unable to walk without steadying herself. " _Come on Star, get a grip,_ " she said to herself, and she made her way towards the gathering halls.

All but one of the rooms were empty of people (or at least _things_ that Star presumed were people), but one of the rooms had several people, sitting at a long table. Star wasn't sure, but it felt like it was the same room that she'd seen Eclipsa and her mother in previously.

The figure at the head of the table began to pulsate wildly. "Oh, that would be my daughter. Excuse me for a moment, I think she needs to speak with me." The voice was recognizably Moon.

She walked towards Star, her form lurching wildly from side to side as it approached her. "What's the matter dear, is―" she suddenly recoiled, various gasses being expelled into the air as she did so. "You don't have the mirror with you."

Star shook her head. "I don't. But I'm using a spell so that I can hear you okay."

"Oh. Uh, I suppose that works. What do you need, dear?"

Star glanced at the figures still sitting at the table. "There's some stuff I need to ask you, and I don't know for sure, but I think it's really close to Level 0 stuff."

Moon sighed. "Give me ten minutes to wrap things up here, and then we'll talk privately."

* * *

Moon led Star back to the royal bedroom, where Moon and River normally slept. "Alright. I'm Detecting to make sure your father doesn't overhear us. What do you need to ask me about?"

"Well, it's about Eclipsa."

Moon's voice got distant, despite her lurching form still being close to Star, "What about her?"

Star scratched the back of her head. "I'm not really sure how to ask this. But..." She sighed. "Several times now, before, when we talked about Eclipsa, it seemed like you… knew stuff about her, that you weren't being direct about. You started saying a few things, then interrupted yourself, claiming they were level 0 secrets. Now, if you can't tell me about some of this stuff, then you can't tell me about it, and I'll leave it alone. But if you can tell me, I'd really like to know:" Star took a deep breath. "Was Eclipsa _actually_ evil?"

Moon's figure froze in place. Star couldn't figure out exactly what her body language was conveying, but it was clear that she'd asked the right question.

There was an audible noise of Moon clearing her throat, as her body began to flail, noiselessly slamming appendages into the ground. "The first thing I'll say is that this definitely counts as a Level 0 secret."

"Right." Star closed her eyes, prepared to accept that she wasn't going to get a straight answer on this issue―

"And no, she wasn't. Or at least not in the way we're used to thinking of it."

Star's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

Moon paused for a few seconds. "The first thing you need to know, Star, is that as Queen, your first priority, above everything else, is to the queens that came before you. Whether it be the Queen Mother assisting you as a queen, or to the Queens who have long since passed on, our dedication to them comes before everything else, even the people of this kingdom. Now, the good news is, serving and protecting the royal family, and serving and protecting the people, are not usually mutually antagonistic goals. And this is true even when it comes to Eclipsa, and her legacy. But, it is very much true that things get very, uh, 'complicated' when dealing with her."

"What do you mean?"

Moon began to pace the room, her body rolling around, her appendages adhering themselves to the ground, only detaching after being violently pulled away by her lumbering mass. "I certainly wouldn't peg Eclipsa as a person of altruism and virtue. She certainly wasn't that. But there are details to her actions as Queen that we, in the royal family, worked very hard to… Revise. Some of that was easy: even I don't know the whole truth about who Eclipsa was as a person, or what she did as Princess and Queen. And I don't think you would have asked me such a direct question if you weren't working out the truth on your own terms, would you?"

Star folded her arms. "I've been following her actions before the Artificers got created. I still don't know what happened afterwards, but she was fighting to protect vulnerable people. She was fighting to weed out corruption in the Mewnie government. Unless she did something irredeemably awful later on, I don't see how that makes her evil."

"Well, it's actually pretty simple," Moon said, her voice sounding resigned. "Eclipsa was evil because she went against her own government, and the Government is Good."

"What?"

"Sorry, it's… It's one of those lies I have to repeat to myself every now and then to keep myself sane." Her mother sounded weirdly drained having to say this.

Star's mouth hung open. This wasn't the most disturbing thing she'd heard anyone say, not even close. But hearing those words from her own mother was its own level of disturbing.

"The broad picture is that at the time that Eclipsa was a princess, and early in her reign as Queen, the Mewnie government was a model of rampant political corruption, extending all the way from the desk clerks working for the government, all the way up to the Queen herself. Eclipsa might have a legacy of being the 'Evil Queen of Darkness', but it's her mother who truly deserves the title."

"Yeah, we've seen her in some of the scenes we looked at. She's… awful."

Moon's body began to latch itself to various objects in the room. "When Eclipsa came to power, the first thing she did was begin to remove other people from their positions in the government. One-by-one, everyone who had so much as taken a coin in bribes or hush money was removed from their position of power, and made to vanish without a trace." Moon's voice got deathly serious for a moment, "And for the record, if there was a case to make for Eclipsa being evil, it would be worth checking into _how_ she made people vanish, because most of those people were literally never seen or heard from again."

"But even so, we in the Butterfly royal line have maintained that Eclipsa behaved justly, and if she'd had her way, she would have restored prosperity to Mewnie."

"But she didn't." Star said, beginning to put pieces together in her head.

"Records from before Eclipsa left Mewnie are scarce and volatile, but I don't think it's difficult to work out what happened: she made too many enemies. Too many people, both in and out of the government, who had gotten used to the privileges afforded by the obscene corruption that preceded her, began to actively undermine her reign as Queen. Even as she began to institute programs which would help elevate Mewnie society, she was labeled as a radical. Conspiracy theories began to rise up, first accusing her of "not really being Mewman", with a thousand different lines of attack for how this conspiracy was actually the opposition 'unmasking the truth about Eclipsa'."

"Populists began to rise up, trying to claim, even against the evidence, that Eclipsa's actions as queen were ruining the kingdom. In the last year of Eclipsa's reign as queen, the kingdom was in a full-blown revolution, with the Populists leading a rebellion against the state. Eclipsa did the only thing she could to quell the rebellion: she stepped down as queen, and ceded power to her cousin, who was a moderate that had sympathized with the Populists."

Star was trying not to look at her mother, whose deformed, monstrous form was warping before her eyes. "We always learned that Eclipsa fled the kingdom."

"Which isn't technically a lie," Moon said matter-of-factly. "If she hadn't stepped down, she almost certainly would have lost her throne to the Rebellion. The Butterfly line might have lost our Royal Mandate if she hadn't done that."

"But why? Why did they hate Eclipsa so much?"

"Because she threatened the powerful, to serve the weak. Powerful people don't like it when you try to take away their power, and they'll find every rationale, every excuse, every justification possible to make you believe that truly, they are the ones suffering."

"So what happened?"

"Eclipsa's cousin was…" Moon made a derisive noise. "I suppose we've had worse Queens in this kingdom, but she definitely wasn't one of the better ones. Eclipsa was clever, in ways that few other people are. But it mollified the Rebellion, and in time, the kingdom's political divide healed, even as it reverted back into the economic and cultural stagnation that preceded Eclipsa's reign. Eclipsa left the kingdom, but not before starting the lie about 'Eclipsa, the Queen of Darkness'."

Star stiffened. "She started the lie herself?"

"Her theory was that if the people believed the lies told about her, then it would become possible for future Queens of Mewnie to invoke her name as a political cudgel to defend their own actions. So she fabricated stories about how she had been sacrificing children to make herself young. She submitted anonymous stories to the kingdom's newsletters, claiming to be eyewitness testimony to how she had hoarded the kingdom's wealth for herself. She took the policies she put forward that worked, and rewrote the story about those policies: they were things she _opposed_ , that other people in the Mewnie Government had to force into practice _in spite of her_."

"And it worked. As time has passed since the Reign of Eclipsa, we've been invoking her image, as the dark specter of a Queen gone mad with power, citing policies and decisions which she herself championed, but which we now claim she detested and resisted. She sacrificed her own legacy to protect this kingdom."

Moon sounded grieved as she spoke next. "The truth is, whatever else she was, Mewnie might not exist today anymore if it weren't for her sacrifices. And despite that, as Queen, it's my solemn duty to continue to propagate the lie of Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness, because it's the only way to let her sacrifice not be in vain. You too, will have to shoulder that burden, when you become Queen."

Star leaned against the wall, then immediately recoiled as she felt the clammy sensation of the blood seeping into her clothes. "Poor Eclipsa."

Moon suddenly sounded serious. "None of this, Star, should override anything you learn about her from studying her past. Like I said, she wasn't evil, but that doesn't mean she was a great person. She did a lot of good things for the kingdom, and we remain in her debt to this day, but the more I think about her past, and taking into account what you've told me about what she did as princess..." She trailed off.

"What?"

"All I'm going to say is not to be terribly shocked if it turns out that, even after all this, she did end up doing some terrible things."


	34. THE MANIPULATOR

Day 38.

"I'm so sorry, Jackie."

Star stood in the hospital room, looking at Jackie, who was in bed, looking out the hospital window. Marco was outside the room, keeping the mirror near the door so that Star's senses didn't give out on her.

When Star had returned to her room the previous day, she found out that Marco had indeed taken her advice, and gone to see Jackie. He refused to relate what they had talked about, except that Jackie was now willing to talk to Star, and in fact, was really impatient to talk to her.

Star had no idea what to expect, but she braced herself for the worst. For Jackie to yell at her, call her a terrible person, tell her how much she hates her for paralyzing her, tell her how awful of a person she is, tell her how she was going to make her pay for it.

And as far as Star was concerned, she would have deserved all of it. The only reason Jackie was injured was because of her. Hell, the only reason Marco was dying was because of her. Jackie didn't deserve to sit in this hospital bed. Marco didn't deserve to be dying. Star deserved both those things, and more.

So Star found herself caught entirely off-guard by Jackie's behavior. When Jackie turned to face her, she smiled. "It's okay, Star. I know."

Star blinked several times. She then shook her head. "It's not okay. What I did to you, I…!"

"It wasn't your fault," Jackie said, shaking her head. "You didn't know."

"That's not…" Star struggled to find the words. "It is my fault, Jackie. No, I didn't know it was you, but I _should_ have known. I should have been paying closer attention to Marco's reservations, I should have been paying closer attention to the details that would have made it obvious what was going on. Yeah, maybe I got sucker-punched by a curse I didn't understand, but if I hadn't been so self-absorbed, I would have at least been clever enough to know that if the curse were making me hallucinate the walls turning into flesh, it could also turn my friends into enemies. If I had just stopped to think about it, I would have realized what was happening. So I appreciate you trying to take the high-road, but I messed up. I can't pretend that isn't true just because you want to put this behind us."

Jackie had a strange look on her face. "Then how about this: I forgive you."

Star smiled. "I guess I can work with that."

Jackie turned back to the window. "They brought some doctors from Earth to work with the doctors here. They think they're going to be able to repair my spinal cord. So I'll be able to walk and run and everything again. Look: I can turn my head! And I can already move one of my fingers." She punctuated this point by making her index finger twitch.

"That's good." Star stared at the floor. "Marco's been so worried about you. He doesn't really talk much anymore, but… I can tell that he's been sick with worrying about you."

Jackie's smile vanished. "You guys are still investigating that stuff with Eclipsa, aren't you?"

"Well, I am, at least," Star began. "Marco's been sitting a lot of it out. I don't want to burden him any more than he already is, you know? I mean, he's worried about you, he's dealing with his own mortality, and a lot of the stuff dealing with Eclipsa has been… I guess 'getting to him' is how I would phrase it."

"Hmm."

Star noticed the shift in tone. "What's up?"

Jackie continued to stare out the window. "Hey Star, I have a question."

Star felt a knot form in her stomach, uneasy about what Jackie was going to ask her. "What is it?"

"There's… You'll have to bear with me, the question has a bit of setup to it. Or, I guess..." Jackie popped her head up. "I want to tell you a story, and when I get to the end, I'm going to ask you a question about it, and I want you to answer it as honestly as possible. Can you do that?"

Star shivered. "Seems like a test at school."

Jackie smiled. "It's nothing like that."

Star's uneasiness didn't go away, but she acquiesced. "Alright. How's the story go?"

Jackie looked thoughtful. "A couple of years ago, my friends and I went to go see a movie. I don't remember what it was, I think it was one of those Superhero movies that we keep getting each year. I don't usually care for those kinds of movies, but my friends really wanted to go, so I went with them."

"Except, not really. Two of my friends ended up getting into a fight after the movie was over. One of the girls had agreed to cover the other girl's ticket, to be paid back later, and the other girl didn't want to pay for the ticket anymore. She didn't like the movie, and felt she shouldn't have to pay to go see a bad movie. The fight ended with the girl who didn't want to pay storming off, and the girl who had covered the ticket price steaming, with the rest of us trying to comfort her."

"So, the question I have for you is, was she right? The girl who refused to pay money?"

Again, the story and question had caught Star off guard.

"I mean, it's obvious, isn't it?" Star began, "she sat through the whole movie, right? If she didn't feel the movie was worth the money, she should have tried to get it back from the theater or something, they usually have those 'satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back!' disclaimers, right? It's kinda mean to tell a friend you'll pay them back, and then not do it, you know? Plus, regardless of all that stuff, lots of people sit through bad movies. Sometimes you see a movie that sucks, and I get being disappointed by that, but unless the movie was like, horrifically offensive, I don't know that you're necessarily _entitled_ to a refund, you know?"

Jackie nodded. "That makes sense."

Star tilted her head. "Is… Is that all? Is there more to this?"

Jackie didn't respond for a few moments. Star noticed that Jackie's index finger was twitching slightly. "There is." She gave Star a sly smirk. "Who do you think was that girl in my story? It's someone you know."

Star stared at the ceiling for a moment. She knew the people that both she and Jackie were friends with, but she didn't know who all encompassed Jackie's circle of friends. Unable to deduce anything, she just started listing names, "Janna?"

"No."

"Sabrina?"

"No."

"Brittany? Starfan13?"

"I'm not even friends with Brittany, and I don't know who Starfan13 is."

"Uhh, she's the girl that cosplays as me all the time."

"Oh, right. I'm used to thinking of her by a different name. And no."

Star threw up her arms. "I don't know who your other friends are."

Jackie rolled her eyes, smiling. "Well, it was an unfair question. You had to answer it based on a lie."

Star blinked. "What was the lie?"

"That I wasn't one of the girls arguing and fighting."

"Wait… It was you?"

Jackie nodded, a rueful expression on her face. "My actual excuse wasn't much better than what I told her. I'd already used up my allowance for the week, and I didn't want to have to pay for a movie, so I told her I'd pay her back later, then flaked as soon as the movie ended."

Star leaned against the door. "That's… wow."

"I know, right? I was an awful kid."

Star folded her arms. "So… Why did you tell me this?"

"What? I'm not allowed to share my past with you?"

"Well, I mean…" Star looked around. "I'm not saying that. It's just that if you're not going to yell at me for what I did, I don't really understand why you wanted to talk to me all of a sudden. If there's a big point to your story, I… Look. You did something bad when you were younger. I relate: I've done bad stuff recently. And somehow, it doesn't feel like that's a trend that's going to break anytime soon. But I don't get what the point of all this is."

Jackie smiled. "I just wanted to share that with you. That's all it was. You can get back to work trying to save Marco."

Star looked helplessly around the room, still not understanding the point of any of this. "...Okay. Again, I'm sorry about everything that happened, and I hope you don't have to stay here much longer."

"Me too."

Star reached for the door.

"Hey Star?"

"Yeah?"

Jackie had a stony expression on her face, and she was looking out the window again. "Make sure Marco is okay. He's really not doing so well, and he needs you to be strong for him. For a lot of reasons. Some of which he hasn't told you yet."

Star's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

Jackie shook her head. "It's not my place to speak for him. And he was reluctant to talk about it even with me; I doubt he'll want to talk to you about it. Just know that you're not tricking yourself if it seems like there's more to his depression than just his mortality."

Star nodded.

"Maybe… Don't ask the mirror about it either. It's kind of…" She sighed. "Don't invade his privacy, is all I'm saying."

"Right. There's a lot of questions I've avoided asking the mirror for that exact reason."

Jackie chuckled. "God, imagine that thing falling into the hands of someone truly terrible, you know?"

"Yeah." Star turned halfway back to the door. "Anyways, I'm going to get going."

"See you."

* * *

"I didn't hear any yelling. These walls must be pretty soundproof."

Star chuckled at Marco's joke as they walked out of the hospital.

"Something funny?"

"Just what you said," Star said serenely.

Marco stopped in place. "Wait, so she didn't yell at you?"

Star turned to look at Marco, who had a confused expression on his face. "I mean, I was surprised she didn't, but no, she never raised her voice. She forgave me almost immediately, told me a story about herself that I still don't really understand, and then let me leave."

Marco glanced to the side. "That's... Weird. It seemed like she was still angry with you when I spoke to her yesterday."

Star shrugged. "Could be the drugs. I don't know if we got stuff from Earth or have just been giving her Mewnie pain relievers."

Marco began walking again. "Maybe."

Star kept pace with him. "Hey. It's been a little while since we talked. How are you doing?"

Marco stared at the ground as he walked. "I mostly just feel like I'm counting down the days until my execution."

Star opened her mouth, then closed it.

"What?"

She folded her arms around herself. "It's not easy to dig through the stuff with Eclipsa when you're not there."

Marco's brow furrowed. "Right. So what you're saying is, I should just stop moping around all the time. Must be really hard for you, sitting there, knowing all you have to do is run out the clock, and then you get to be free of this curse. My apologies."

His sarcasm didn't go undetected.

Star gulped, trying to figure out how to phrase her response. "Marco, I..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "You know that that's not what's happening, right? I'm not as good at this as I thought I was, but all of this is to save you, right?"

Marco scoffed.

"Do you not believe me?"

Marco sighed. He then turned to Star, with a tired expression on his face. "I don't believe that you would lie to me. Not about something like this." He turned to look at the looming palace. "So I choose to believe that you're just dumb enough to believe it yourself."

Star stopped in place. "Excuse me?!"

Marco threw up his arms, stopping to turn to her. "Your mother, the entire Magical High Commission, and literally every magic-knowing person in the kingdom looked at me while you were locked up. They told me a million times that they'd look into saving me. Where are they now, Star? Why aren't they helping you?"

Star shook her head. "I... I mean, they have responsibilities of their own, I don't think the life of a single person weighs up against all that..."

He gritted his teeth. "That's even worse than the truth, Star! No, the reason they aren't here helping us is because they already know it's impossible! They know that there's no way to save me, and you dragging this realization out like this isn't helping anyone!"

"They don't... This stuff involves really rare and unknown magic. They're not going to have an answer right away!"

Marco huffed up. "Oh, they got to an answer pretty quickly, Star." He held up the mirror. "Show Star what her mother told my parents."

Star shivered. "I'm not sure you should..."

The mirror's pane shimmered. "MOON BUTTERFLY INFORMED ANGIE AND RAPHAEL DIAZ THAT MARCO WAS TERMINAL, THAT NO MAGIC OR PROCEDURE WOULD SAVE HIM, AND THAT THEY NEEDED TO PREPARE FOR HIS FUNERAL."

Star gasped when she saw what the mirror said, then felt a flash of anger rise up in her cheeks. "Well, then screw my mother! What the hell does she know anyways? She didn't even know Fate Magic existed a few weeks ago!"

"Star, do you think this kind of Denial is healthy, for either of us?"

"Do you think your Fatalism is any better?"

Marco glared at her.

"Eclipsa somehow gave those Artificers the ability to cast Fate Magic. I don't know how, but whatever else she was, she was still just a Mewman, like me or anyone else. The only thing she had that I don't is a fully functional version of that," she said, pointing at the mirror, "and even then, I have a leg up on her. I have all the research she did after the Iris Experiment."

Marco still looked angry, but his expression softened slightly.

"You're absolutely right, okay Marco? We are absolutely dealing with things we know nothing about, and things which no one else knows anything about. That's not enough to give up."

Marco turned away.

"Jackie said something to me, about something you hadn't wanted to talk to me about. Was this it? That my mother told your parents that you were doomed to die?"

He gave an evasive answer. "In a manner of speaking."

Star sighed, softening her tone. "I'm going to prove her wrong. I swear it." She looked at the ground. "I do need your help though. I might be able to save you without your help, but I know I don't want to have to do this alone."

"I'll help with the scrying on Eclipsa stuff." He spoke quietly.

"Good."


	35. SYMPATHIZING WITH THE ENEMY

Day 35.

After Star spoke to Jackie, several days passed with her and Marco trying to follow Eclipsa's story through the mirror. Unfortunately, they ended up not finding much. For a duration of what appeared to be several weeks after the Trial concluded, Eclipsa didn't seem to be doing much of anything at all. She sat in her room, alternating between books and the Mirror.

The questions being posed to the mirror were banal and irrelevant, to the point where Star wondered what Eclipsa was even doing: did she just give up? Of course not: why did she make that promise to Lily then? But then what was the point of any of this?

Before they finally found a new lead, though, Star noticed something interesting: The diary entry that Eclipsa had written. It was missing the last third. She'd written all the way up to " _So why haven't I?_ ", but nothing further.

* * *

In the scene, Eclipsa was sitting in her room, asking questions of the mirror, when her mother knocked at the door. Eclipsa stashed the mirror away and got up to answer the door.

She scowled for the briefest of seconds upon seeing her mother, but quickly assumed a poker face as her mother entered the room. The queen had a warm expression on her face. "Is this a bad time to talk, honey?"

Eclipsa sat at her desk. "No. What is it?" She asked, dispassionately.

The Queen sighed. "I… Have some difficult news to deliver. The members of the Mewnie Royal Artificers Guild are not happy with how you've treated them. You've been formally accused of Libel and Slander, and there will be a trial to determine your guilt or innocence."

Eclipsa flinched. "I see."

"I'm allowing the charges to proceed. I think that this will show your contrition for how you behaved these past few months. When you become Queen, you'll need these men and women on your side, and I think standing trial like this will show them that you regret your actions, and that you intend to make things right. Your trial will take place in one month's time."

"I understand."

"One more thing." The Queen was about to leave the room, but turned to face Eclipsa again. "We finally found the monster responsible for those horrific crimes against our children. It's been jailed, and its trial is scheduled in a few weeks. Naturally, I will be presiding over that Trial, so bear that in mind."

Eclipsa stared blankly at her wall. "Good to know."

The Queen smiled. "This is good for the Kingdom, you know?"

The door closed.

Eclipsa jumped up from her desk and grabbed the mirror. "Okay. I already know the answer to this question, but I need you to confirm it. The Monster that my mother has had locked up: is it responsible for abusing those kids?"

"NO." The mirror simply read.

"Big shocker." Both Eclipsa and Star said this at the same time.

"When it goes to trial, will my mother find it guilty, and sentence it to death for its crimes?"

"YES." The Probability on the mirror read "0.9999".

Eclipsa shook her head. "I can't let that happen." She walked over to her wall mirror. "Call Lily."

Lily's face appeared on the wall mirror. "Hey Eclipsa, what's up?"

Eclipsa grimaced at Lily, then contorted her face. "I need to ask you a question about the Conduit section of that textbook you lent me."

Lily suddenly had a very serious look on her face. "Oh, the Conduit section? What about it?"

"Well, I'm working on tonight's problem, and it just doesn't work for me at all. Like, it's just completely unworkable."

Lily looked disappointed again. "Oh, that's a shame. Why don't I come over tomorrow, and you can explain to me why it doesn't work."

"That sounds good. Thanks for understanding."

"Anytime. You are my best friend, after all."

"Same. Have a good night."

The call ended. Eclipsa turned back to the mirror. "Iris. I need a plan to break out that Monster. This plan needs to include the following things:

Firstly, no one else can find out that I was involved, or even that I left my room tonight.

Secondly, it needs to seem like they broke out on their own.

Thirdly, I need to return them to their home, where they will be able to peacefully live out the rest of their life.

Can you give me a plan that will do all that?"

Star blinked at this request. "Huh. She's way more creative on how to use this mirror than we are."

Marco frowned. "Kind of seems like that plan should be impossible to devise."

But Eclipsa started grinning at the mirror. "Okay. That's… ABSURDLY complicated. But I can do that." She frowned. "That first step: so my mom is basically monitoring my door now, huh?" She rolled her eyes. "Of course she is."

Eclipsa quickly changed into some ragged clothes that strongly resembled the clothes of the peasants outside the Castle, while Star and Marco turned their heads away from her. Once she was satisfied with her getup, she grabbed her wand. "Alright. First things first, I need to craft that one spell ahead of time, right? Can I just do that with an unused scroll?"

Eclipsa took a large sheet of paper, wrote down an inscription on it, and cast a spell on it. "Alright. Now for a spell to deceive the monitoring spells so she doesn't know I'm leaving."

Eclipsa performed a quick routine with her wand, and the spell went off without any light emitted from the wand. Eclipsa tucked her dimensional scissors into her pocket, rolled up the scroll and tucked it away as well, and then, holding the mirror and her wand, she walked out into the hallway outside her room.

The next half an hour was reminiscent of when Eclipsa had snuck out of the Palace to elope with Lily. Many castings of Detection to figure out where other people were, to ensure no one saw her. The main difference was that this time, Eclipsa was periodically confirming with the mirror that no one had seen her.

About halfway through this process, there was a knock at the door in Star's bedroom, and they paused the scene.

Angie walked into the room, carrying a tray of sandwiches. "Hey kids." She looked meaningfully at Star. "Your mother finally allowed me into the royal kitchen! It's funny, she actually joined me in there, but she seemed very confused by what was going on. Star… Does your mother know how to cook?"

Star chuckled. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the servants do most of the cooking normally."

Angie scoffed. "Figures! Anyways, I figured you two might appreciate some food."

She set the plate down next to Star and Marco.

Star studied Angie's expression. Angie now knew that Marco was going to die; and what's more, she had been expressly told by Moon that there was no way to save him. Marco often spent the evenings spending time with his parents or with Jackie, but even so, Star began to suspect that Angie was putting on a face for her. Like she didn't want Star to see her completely falling apart at the thought that her son was dying.

"Thanks, Mrs. Diaz. We really appreciate it."

Angie nodded. "I assume you two are in the thick of it right now?"

Star nodded.

"I'll leave you to it then."

Star opened her mouth, but she couldn't find the words to say to Angie before she closed the door.

Star and Marco began eating as they resumed the scene.

Once Eclipsa was outside the Castle, she made a beeline into the surrounding slums, searching for the specific jailhouse where the Monster was being held. She flipped a hood up over herself to conceal her identityWhen she found it, she consulted the mirror again. "How's this spell supposed to work? It looks like it's gonna put the staff to sleep, but aren't they going to realize someone helped the Monster escape when they wake up?"

The mirror shimmered.

Eclipsa's eyes widened. "Oh WOW. Why didn't I ever think of a spell like that before? Like, forget breaking and entering, I could use a spell like this to gain back 6 hours a day. Finish my research into the foundations of Spellcrafting…"

The mirror shimmered again.

"Oh. Maybe not then. Anyways, show me the incantation again."

There were a few minutes of Eclipsa wordlessly performing motions with her wand before Star and Marco heard a very soft 'pop'. Tucking away her wand, Eclipsa glanced at the Jailhouse. "Did I cast it correctly?"

Once the mirror confirmed the casting of the spell, Eclipsa also tucked the mirror away and walked up to the Jailhouse. The entryway was still lit by candles, as the building was watched at all times.

The clerk at the front desk glanced up at Eclipsa. "Uh, your highness!" he stood at attention.

Eclipsa eyed him warily. "Hi, do you know what you're doing right now?"

The clerk blinked at her. "What kind of a question is that? I'm the clerk for this Jail."

Eclipsa sighed. "Right, of course." She stood upright. "I'm here to interrogate the suspect."

The clerk narrowed his eyes slightly. "Uh, I don't think that's possible."

Eclipsa looked like she expected this response. "Why is that?"

"Your mother―er, Her Royal Majesty, she paid a visit to us today, and informed us that no one, not even you, would be allowed to see the Monster we locked up. So even as princess, I don't think you have the authority to visit with it."

Eclipsa made a very exaggerated sigh. "And I'm under direct orders from my mother to speak with the suspect. She thinks it'll teach me proper respect for the judicial process or something… I honestly have no idea, it seemed like a stupid thing to do. But I have to do it regardless."

The clerk looked nervous. "I don't know, I mean, she was pretty clear when she spoke with us today..."

Eclipsa smiled. "Look, this doesn't seem that complicated. She gave you all an order, and I'm here to tell you that that order has been revised."

The clerk still looked nervous.

"How about this: when I'm finished up, you'll see me on my way out, right? Once you finish escorting me to the suspect, go find your Warden, and have him meet me at the entrance. I'll clear things up with him."

The clerk nodded. "I mean… I guess."

"Well then that's settled," Eclipsa said with a wide smile. "Where do I need to go?"

The clerk rang a small bell, and a guard approached the two of them, entering from another room. "What's going on―oh! Your highness!"

The clerk shuffled nervously. "Uh, she's under orders from the queen herself to speak with the monster we locked up."

The guard raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"She's agreed to sign off with the Warden once she's done."

The guard shrugged. "Whatever."

The clerk walked off in the opposite direction, presumably to find the warden, while the Guard escorted Eclipsa down the hall he had come from.

They walked past many rows of cells. The vast majority were empty, but a few did contain a few peasants dressed in their normal clothes; Star deduced that that meant that they had only been put in there that day.

As they walked, Eclipsa casually stole a key from the guard's waist.

There was a high-security cell at the end of the hallway, with another guard standing next to it. The first guard approached the other, and the briefly exchanged salutes. "What's going on?" She asked.

The male guard replied, "Her Highness has apparently been instructed by Her Majesty to interrogate the prisoner."

The woman blinked. "We were told not to let anyone speak to it."

The man shrugged. "Orders changed."

Eclipsa, standing to the side of the guards, with her back facing away, cast the same spell she'd cast before she left her room, to the knowledge of neither of the guards.

"I… We need to talk to the Warden first. Even if she's the princess, something doesn't feel right."

Eclipsa walked up to the door, inserted the key, and casually opened it.

The guards turned to her. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

Eclipsa closed the door behind her, and grinned through the bars. "Ignoring you." She tossed the keys back through the bars, and the man ran to grab them off the floor.

"That's not okay!" The woman turned to the man, "go get the Warden, I think she tricked us!"

Eclipsa shrugged. "I wouldn't bother, if I were you."

The man ran off anyways, while the woman looked at Eclipsa. "Why not?"

"Because in about 15 seconds, all of you are going to forget I entered this building."

The woman's eyes widened. "What?! What do you mean?"

Eclipsa backed away from the door. "It doesn't matter."

As Eclipsa moved out of sight of the door, behind the adjacent wall, the woman pounded on the door. "You… HEY! Get back here, you need to open this cell! We need to see her inside the cell, so we don't forget!"

The woman ran a few meters away from the door. "HEY! Get back here! We need to see her inside the cell!"

Eclipsa chuckled. "Hey, I got a question for you."

The woman turned around again. "What?"

Eclipsa didn't say anything, dragging out the remaining second and a half in silence, to ensure the woman's echoing voice wouldn't be heard once the spell kicked in..

She continued to lean against the wall, a confident smile on her face, as the woman's expression suddenly turned neutral. She looked around briefly, before sliding against the wall again, facing away from the high-security cell.

Eclipsa quietly made her way further into the cell, down a much smaller hallway, until she reached the cell where the Monster was held.

The lighting in this area was very weak, so she couldn't quite see what kind of Monster it was. She could tell that it was about Mewman sized, though.

Another spell went off, this time a spell that would dampen her speech. "Excuse me, sir."

The monster looked up at her, its face hidden by shadow. "What?" Its voice was gruff and sharp, and its mouth moving revealed a large number of teeth.

Eclipsa knelt down in front of the cell. "I have a very simple question for you. You must answer this question, and you must answer it in the most absolutely truthful manner possible. Do you understand?"

"… who are you?"

"I will repeat myself. I have a very simple question―"

"Yes, I understand. What is your question?"

"Thank you." Eclipsa paused for a moment. "You have been formally charged with committing Sexual Abuse of Mewman Children, on multiple counts. Are you guilty of this crime?"

"No! I've already told your people a hundred times, I would never do such a thing! Why won't you―"

"Okay. That's all I needed."

"… That's it?"

"Would you tell me your name?"

"… Lyro."

"Lyro. There are three things you need to know. The first is that I believe you when you say you are innocent. The second is that if you go to trial, you will be found Guilty, and executed. The third, is that because of points one and two, I am going to help you escape and help you get home."

There was a soft gasping noise. "Who… are you?"

"You are not entitled to that information. All you need to know is that I am here to help you."

"Why?"

"You are not entitled to know that either."

Lyros made a weird motion that looked like how a Mewman or Human would fold their arms. "How, then?"

Eclipsa pulled out the scroll. "This scroll will, for a few minutes, dramatically increase your strength. You'll be able to use that strength to break through the walls of this Jail. Once you've broken out, I will lead you to the forest, where you'll be able to find your family."

"How do I know that this scroll won't simply hex me?"

Eclipsa sighed. "I refer you back to point 2 from before, where I pointed out that you're going to be found guilty and executed. If I wanted to kill you, I'd just wait for the trial to happen. I wouldn't bother coming to visit you."

Lyros spoke more quietly next: "That leaves one more question though: why?"

Eclipsa made an irritated noise. "I already told you, I'm not going to tell you why I'm doing this."

"That's not what I mean. I mean, 'why should I do this?'"

"Because this is the only way to save your life?"

There was a long pause.

"Maybe it's not worth it to save my life."

Star shivered, hearing those words.

"What do you mean?" Eclipsa asked. "Don't you have people you care about? People you want to go home to?"

"Not anymore. Not for a long time."

Eclipsa sighed. "I really should have asked about this part," she said quietly to herself.

"What?"

"Never mind. Look, whether you want to continue on living afterward or not, isn't really within the purview of my concern. But, I did kind of plan this whole thing by planning to follow you out when you broke down the walls. Now, I've got a few ways I could improvise around your stubbornness, but I definitely prefer sticking to the original plan. Is there really no one else who cares about you?"

There was another pause.

"Maybe..."

"Hmm?" Eclipsa vocalized.

"No… She wouldn't want to see me."

"Who?"

"My ex-wife."

Eclipsa rolled her eyes. "Things didn't end well?"

"Well..."

Eclipsa folded her arms. "Regardless of how she feels, you clearly still care about her, it would seem."

"… In a manner of speaking."

"Have you ever told her that?"

Lyros stiffened.

"Here's what I'm thinking, Lyros. You break out of here, and we make our way to your Ex's place. I'll leave you there. You can tell her whatever it is you need to tell her, and if you decide it wasn't worth the effort, then, well… You're not my responsibility anymore. But surely coming clean with her is better than wallowing here, waiting to die?"

Lyros nodded. "Yes. I believe you are right."

Eclipsa tossed the scroll through the bars. "Just read the scroll, the spell will take effect immediately."

Lyros picked up the scroll and read through it. There was a brief flash of light, accompanied by a cracking noise.

"Alright, first break these bars, then smash your way through the wall behind you!" Eclipsa said as quietly as she could without being drowned out by the sound of the spell.

Behind them, the guards were scrambling into position. "HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE!"

Eclipsa was strategically positioned so that the guards couldn't see her, and as Lyros broke the bars, Eclipsa quickly dashed behind him. "Alright. The wall now."

Lyros smashed into the wall, and the light of the moon flooded the area. Eclipsa quickly threw up her hood, as she and Lyros ran out into the open air.

Magical alarms began to sound.

Eclipsa attached herself to Lyros. "Alright. This spell doesn't just affect your upper body. You need to launch us into the air. I'll take care of the rest, but it's ideal if you launch us in…" she pointed in the direction of the forest, "that direction."

Lyros hunched down, and with a powerful roar, he launched himself and Eclipsa high up into the air, way over the tops of the buildings, and almost as high as the wall surrounding the castle.

Eclipsa, holding her wand behind her back, cast a spell to propel them both forwards at great speed. They were flung well past the village.

"Alright, our vertical speed shouldn't get too high, the important thing is braking as we land. I've got a slow-fall spell, but you'll still have to brace yourself as we land, got it?"

Eclipsa didn't notice her hood fall off as they flew through the air.

She carefully cast the slow-fall spell, and they struck the ground with a terrifying thud. Lyros managed to plant himself to the ground, causing Eclipsa to fly forwards off of him. A quick twisting of her body ensured that her butt hit the ground first, and she toppled backwards, suffering several significant scratches and bruises, but no major injuries.

"Ow…." Eclipsa groaned, rubbing her injuries. "Hey, Lyros, are you okay?"

There was no response.

"The spell should wear off any second now, but we should be far enough away from the village that they won't be able to keep up with us if we get going. So how about…?"

Eclipsa looked up at Lyros.

Now that they were in the moonlight, she could see him more clearly.

And the terrified expression on his face.

"What?"

Suddenly, Eclipsa reached for her hood, and tried to pull it back over her head, but quickly realized that it was already too late.

"Listen, whoever you think I am, I'm not, alright? I'm just a stranger trying to help you, that's all that matters, okay?"

"You…!"

"Lyros, listen to me, we need to get going. We've got maybe a fifteen minute head start, but if they find us, they'll―"

Lyros fell to his knees. "You're Princess Eclipsa." his voice trembled.

Eclipsa shook her head. "I'm no one, okay?! I'm just someone trying to help you. You understand that? Whatever my identity is, it's incidental."

Eclipsa suddenly paused, looking at Lyros more directly.

Rows and rows of teeth.

Eyes like a snake.

Sharp claws on its paws.

Eclipsa gasped.

Lyros stared at Eclipsa, his eyes bulging. "You… You…!"

Eclipsa didn't say anything, her hands clasped over her face.

"You killed my son."


	36. TRULY DESPICABLE PARENTS

For a long time, Eclipsa and Lyros stared at each other. Lyros, on his knees, staring in horror at Eclipsa; Eclipsa, her hands clasped over her mouth, staring at the father of a young boy she murdered.

There were alarms sounding out in the distance, but Eclipsa's spell had flung them over the top of a large cliff; it would take a long time for anyone to navigate around the cliff to their position.

Star shook in her seat, unsettled by the scene.

Eventually, Eclipsa lowered her hands.

"I..." Eclipsa looked around helplessly. "This is…" She shook her head.

"I'm sorry.

I know this is meaningless to you. I know that no words or deeds I could perform could possibly even begin to make up for what I've done to you. Even telling you that I regret what I did feels insensitive, like I'm putting my need to be absolved for what I did ahead of your grief. But I am sorry."

Lyros continued to stare at her, his expression hollow. Eventually, he spoke: "...Why?"

Eclipsa adjusted herself uncomfortably. "Because I murdered your child. That's irredeemable."

Lyros slowly shook his head. "No. I mean… Why did you kill him?"

Eclipsa made a broken gasping noise, barely keeping her composure together. "There is no reason."

"There has to be!" Lyros shouted, his voice faintly echoing in the woods. "You don't… He was just a child! **You** were just a child! Children don't kill each other for no reason!"

Eclipsa shook her head. "I don't know what you're expecting me to say. There's no possible reason I could give you that would undo or justify what I did." She looked at the ground, and continued, "I was taught that all Monsters were evil, and that they deserved to die. I realized too late how awful that was, and how much harm it had caused, long after I killed your son." She looked grimly at Lyros. "You see the problem? In saying that, I'm shifting blame away from myself. Trying to make it seem like I wasn't really at fault. I killed your son. I did it with hatred in my heart. That's all there is to it. Anything else is an obfuscation of the truth."

They both stared at each other, once again with neither of them speaking.

"So is that what this is about?" Lyros asked, growling as he said it. "You've come to finish the job then?"

Eclipsa shook her head. "I didn't know you were the Mon―person the Queen locked up. I knew only that you were innocent and that you didn't deserve to die."

Lyros narrowed his eyes. "Really."

Eclipsa looked up at the moon, and stared at it. "Get it over with."

"What?"

Eclipsa dropped her Wand and the Mirror on the ground, and folded her arms behind herself, still staring up at the moon. "There's no enchantments on my body, no spells protecting me. Your claws are for more than decoration, right? The guards are at least ten minutes out from catching up with us. You'd have more than enough time to run away."

Lyros stared at her, his eyes bulging.

"I won't fight back."

Star gasped, realizing what Eclipsa was offering. "Wait a second," she whispered. "She definitely lives past this, right? She hasn't finished her journal yet."

Lyros approached Eclipsa, holding his clawed fists near her throat. "How did my son die?" He asked, quietly.

Eclipsa closed her eyes. "We beat him to death, using branches of wood."

He leaned in close. "Did he suffer?"

Eclipsa's composure broke, as she let out a choked sob: "Yes. He did."

Lyro's face contorted with agony, and his body shook as he stood there, his claws centimeters from Eclipsa's neck.

Then, he choked out a sob.

And collapsed onto the ground in front of Eclipsa, openly weeping.

Eclipsa opened her eyes, and looked down at him. Then, she knelt down in front of him, her face wracked with guilt.

Lyros looked at her for a moment, then continued to sob.

Eclipsa picked her wand and mirror up off the ground. "Well, if that's how it is, then… My original plan was to take you to your Ex's place..." Her voice trailed off, clearly realizing that that would have to be the mother of the Monster she killed, "… Obviously, if you want nothing more to do with me… Well, that's understandable. So… What do you want me to do?"

Lyros shook his head, his sobs quieting. "I don't know," he said, his voice faint and tortured. "I feel like seeing you… It's like losing my son all over again."

Eclipsa grimaced and turned her head away.

"I thought about it, long before today. What I would do if I ever met you. I plotted to wait for you to have children. How I would take my revenge against them. I wanted to make you suffer, the way I had. I still do."

Eclipsa took in a deep breath.

"I'm pathetic, aren't I? Given a golden opportunity to take my revenge, and I can't do it."

Eclipsa furrowed her brow. "I wouldn't know that. The only thing I do know is that of the two of us, you're the only one who refused to kill someone who wasn't fighting back." She looked back at the moon again. "There's a lot of things you could call that. Honorable. Moral. Dignified. Better than me. But I definitely wouldn't call it pathetic."

Lyros stared at the ground.

Eclipsa glanced at the torches, faintly visible in the distance, of guards preparing to ascend the cliff. "You need to get going. I don't want to have to break you out a second time." Eclipsa stood up, and began to walk away from him.

"HOLD UP!" He bellowed.

Eclipsa turned around.

Lyros stood up. "You told me you were going to escort me. That was your plan, right?"

* * *

Eclipsa and Lyros walked briskly through the forest. Eclipsa kept her distance to the side and slightly behind of him, apparently not wanting to cause him any further pain. "Is it okay for me to ask you a question?" she asked, quietly.

"What?" Lyros said, somewhat curtly.

Eclipsa tugged at her fingers. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but… How were you captured?"

Lyros continued trudging forwards, and for a while, it seemed like he was ignoring Eclipsa's question. "Why does it matter?"

Eclipsa folded her arms. "The people who captured you… I'm not sure whether they genuinely think that you abused those kids, or whether they just planned to use you as a scapegoat, but either way, they're part of a terrible Conspiracy taking place within my kingdom. I already know who abused those kids. I caught them myself. And then, because of corruption in the Mewnie Judiciary, they were found Not Guilty and set loose. You were the endgame of that plan: you would be executed, made out to be the true perpetrator of those crimes, and the Kingdom would officially close the case, leaving the victims to continue to suffer. It's all pretty easy to understand." She narrowed her eyes. "What I don't understand is why it was you. Did they arrest you in your home?"

"No. There's a river near the outer border of this province. It's the closest source of freshwater to my home, I use it to refill my canteens on a regular basis." He growled quietly. "Mewmans usually just ignore me if they see me, but this time, it was a group of Mewmans that were doing the same for their village. When they saw me, they ran screaming for a guard, and right before I left, I was arrested for disturbing the peace. The Mewman police were about to release me, after I explained what I was doing, when an emissary from the Castle showed up, accused me of abusing multiple children inside the palace, and I was transported to the village we just left."

Eclipsa looked guilty again. "That river: there's a Private Mewman School about a kilometer north of the border, correct?"

"That's right. It was around there that you..." His voice trailed off. "Normally, I get water from much further south, away from the border, but there was a mudslide this week, and I had to go further North for water than usual."

Eclipsa spoke quietly, possibly too quietly for Lyros to hear her: "it rained for a whole week before that day, 5 years ago."

"What?"

Eclipsa didn't acknowledge that he'd said that. "So you being the one they arrested was, as far as you can tell, pure coincidence?"

Lyros stopped in place. "It's not exactly a coincidence for a Monster to get arrested for trying to gather water, now is it?" He growled.

"I..." Eclipsa visibly swallowed. "I'm sorry, I meant as opposed to any other Monster. I already know they almost certainly profiled against Mewmans in favor of bringing in a Monster."

Lyros began walking again. "I suppose."

* * *

Their walk took almost half an hour, with little further conversation between them. Star and Marco ended up just watching the two of them walk for a long while, both of them trying to process what was happening.

Star got up from the floor. "Mirror, could you show me where my bed is? Keep the scene going, but light up my bed or something."

Her bed became visible, though it shimmered and was somewhat translucent. Star walked over to her bed and laid on it, facing upwards at the sky being rendered by the scene.

"What's up?" Marco asked.

"I just need a little while to lie down."

Star had a concern, one which had been lingering in the back of her mind ever since she talked to her mother about Eclipsa, and which was now being brought to the fore with Eclipsa talking about the Conspiracy in Mewnie during her time.

A lot of people were involved.

Eclipsa's mother.

The entire Mewnie Artificer's Guild.

Important members of the Mewnie Judiciary.

Based on the stuff with Lyros, a number of members of the Mewnie Royal Guard.

And countless other people.

This stuff all happened more than a century ago. Surely all of it was over, and it wasn't stuff she had to worry about anymore, or ever in the future right?

… So how did she learn about the Mirror in the first place?

Marco had asked her that question weeks ago. And even now, she still didn't have an answer to that question.

_Wait._

"Mirror," Star said suddenly, "how did I first learn about you?"

The message appeared in front of her face. "THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS DEVICE WAS IMPLANTED INTO YOUR HEAD VIA ASTRAL PROJECTION. THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO ANALYZE THE SOURCE OF THIS ACT OF ASTRAL PROJECTION, DUE TO CORRUPTION IN THE DATA."

"What did it say?" Marco couldn't see the text from where he was sitting.

Star narrowed her eyes. "Astral Projection. So basically someone―and how much do you want to bet it was one of the surviving Artificers―found a way to astrally project the knowledge into my head." She groaned. "That's what all this is. We're the culmination of this awful conspiracy."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Wait, aren't all the Artificers supposed to be in Mewnie? How would they have Astrally Projected all the way to Earth?"

"I mean, we're hardly the only people to use Dimensional Scissors..." Star's voice trailed off.

Didn't Janna say something before?

About a cave on Earth?

What if...?

Star suddenly heard Lyros speak: "There it is."

Star sighed, rolled off her bed, and looked up at what was unfolding.

A thatch hut jutted out of the side of a hill. Candle-light was visible from outside.

Eclipsa consulted the mirror briefly. "We should be well outside the legal borders of my kingdom. Not that…" She averted her gaze. "I'm not pressed for time right now, but if you don't need me for anything else..."

Lyros held up one of his fists. "Wait here for awhile." He walked up to the hut, and rapped on the door, while Eclipsa leaned against a tree, barely visible from his position.

The Monster that answered the door was clearly the same species as Lyros, but she was different in notable ways. Her claws were longer than Lyros', but also thinner. Her skin was a different color, and she stood a fair ways taller than Lyros. Her face conveyed substantial shock. "Lyros. Why… What are you doing here?"

Lyros looked to the side. "These definitely aren't the circumstances I wanted to see you again under, but..." He looked directly at her. "Rina. I'm a fugitive, and I don't really have anywhere else to go."

Rina brought a claw to her mouth. "I..." She looked up, and saw the outline of Eclipsa against the tree. "Who's that?"

Lyros gulped. "She's not here to hurt us. She saved my life."

Rina stared at him. "Why would she be here to hurt us?"

"Because… God, how do I explain this..."

Eclipsa approached them, her face, looking somber, was now illuminated by the light from within the hut.

Rina gasped. "You…!"

"She's Princess Eclipsa."

There was a brief moment where they stared at each other. A second later, Rina bared her teeth, snarled, and leapt at Eclipsa, forcing her down into the dirt.

Eclipsa's facial expression didn't change, and she didn't fight back.

"You murderer!" Rina yelled out, her claws centimeters from Eclipsa's neck, much like Lyros had done earlier.

"Yes. I am." Eclipsa didn't change her expression.

Changing tack, however, Rina retracted her claws. "Lyros. Why. In the hell. Would you bring her here?"

Lyros glanced to the side. "Because I couldn't bring myself to kill her. Even after what she did to us, I… I couldn't."

Rina let out a dry chuckle. "So you were going to make me do it instead."

Lyros shuffled uncomfortably.

"Of course."

Eclipsa closed her eyes. "I'm not going to stop you. You have every right."

Rina scowled. "We actually have no rights, as far as you're concerned."

Eclipsa didn't say anything.

"Lyros said that you saved his life. Why? Is this some kind of cosmic joke?"

Eclipsa opened her eyes. "It's certainly not a funny joke. It's actually quite terrible, one where hundreds, possibly even thousands of innocent children have been brutalized, one of which by my own hands. I think saving your husband, and meeting you now, is the punchline: I've spent the last half a year trying to prevent those abuses, but now, my own sins have caught up with me, and I'll die here, having accomplished nothing." She paused briefly. "It's actually a very well structured joke, even if it's not funny at all."

"You didn't answer my question."

Eclipsa glanced at Lyros. "He was accused of a crime he didn't commit, one which my mother was going to have him executed over. He would have taken the fall for the real perpetrators, whom I've been trying to bring to justice. I decided to save his life, both because I'm trying to reduce the innocent bloodshed in the world, and in the hopes that learning about why he got arrested might give me a better picture of who my enemies are. And it certainly has: I bet those Guards didn't even take those kids to the hospital."

Rina stared at Eclipsa, then slowly lifted herself off of Eclipsa. "Well, you're in luck. Because I can't kill you either."

Eclipsa sat up. "You certainly could."

Rina glared at you. "I mean I won't. Unlike you, I don't kill people who aren't fighting back."

Eclipsa folded her arms around her knees. "That makes something you and your ex0husband have in common."

Rina snorted, then looked at Lyros. "Alright. You should get inside. Do we trust that she's not going to rat us out?"

Lyros looked at Eclipsa. "Like we said, I was already arrested and jailed before she broke me out. Any motivation she has against us couldn't have led to this moment."

"I suppose."

Lyros walked into the hut.

"Well?!"

Eclipsa looked up at Rina, who was standing at the door, holding it open.

"Are you just going to sit there?"

Eclipsa hugged her knees. "I'm mostly just trying to work out which sick god decided I deserved to live. After what I've done."

Rina sighed, then whispered something unintelligible to herself. She then stared at Eclipsa for a few more moments. Eventually, she sighed again. "Would you like some tea?"

Eclipsa blinked at her. "What?"

"I'm rescinding the offer if you don't get up now."

"I might be an idiot," Rina began, "for doing this. Inviting a murderer into my home. But you did save Lyro's life, and you didn't have to." She set the cup down in front of Eclipsa. "Whatever else you are, both intrinsically, and towards us, I can't overlook that. I have principles, and if I don't uphold those principles, then I'd be as bad as you."

Eclipsa nodded, and sipped the tea quietly. "This is good."

Rina looked at her for a few moments, then walked to serve tea to Lyros, who was sitting in a different room.

When she returned, Eclipsa set the tea down. "Your name is Rina, right?"

"Yes."

"I have no right to ask this of you."

"What?" She asked, curtly.

"Could you tell me about your son?"

Rina's eyes widened to the point of bulging.

"I knew nothing about him, not even his name. The Mewman agents who covered the incident didn't report on who he was, and the reporters didn't bother either."

Rina set the tea pot down, and walked off. Once again, it wasn't clear whether she was ignoring Eclipsa or not, until she emerged into the room again, holding a binder.

"His name was Minos."

She slapped the binder down, hard, on the table in front of Eclipsa, and walked over to a tub in the corner of the room, and began cleaning dishes.

Eclipsa opened up the binder, and started at the beginning. A young Monster, resembling its parents, but without any of the claws or distinctive teeth.

Eclipsa blinked at the first picture: "It's a Girl!" splayed across a banner hung behind the happy parents.

"There's a banner in this first picture―"

"He was assigned female at birth."

"Oh."

"What does that mean?" Marco asked, unaware of the meaning behind those words.

Star was about to answer, but the mirror interpreted it as a request: "MINOS WAS A TRANSGENDER BOY. RINA'S PHRASING IS A DIRECT AFFIRMATION OF THAT FACT."

"Oh." Was all he managed, his eyes lit up.

"When did he come to you about his identity?"

Rina scrubbed at the dishes, not making eye-contact with Eclipsa. "It would have been when he was about ten. He explained how he felt like who he was was all wrong, how people kept making assumptions about him because they thought he was a girl, and that he didn't really want to be what people expected him to be. Lyros and I were confused at first, but we talked to a few doctors, and they explained a lot to us about Gender, and we realized that all we really wanted was for our son to be happy with who he was. So we helped him transition."

Eclipsa clutched her chest, again looking deeply guilty.

Star looked at Marco, at his wide-eyed expression. _Is he tearing up?_

Eclipsa continued to flip through the pages of the binder. "There's a lot of drawings of birds in here." She flipped ahead, towards the middle of the binder. "He wanted to be a Zoologist?"

Rina froze in place, holding a plate, her lip quivering. "Yes." She said quietly. "We found anthropology books and eventually found books more specific to Zoology. It's possible he just liked looking at the diagrams of wild animals, but it made him happy." Her voice got faint as she finished talking.

Eclipsa closed her eyes.

Rina shook her head. "It wasn't much. We never would have been able to afford the schooling necessary for him. I don't even know a school on this continent that would take one of _us_ in. We would have had to send him across the sea, and the money to do that… We would have never given him what he needed." She sighed. "We were rotten parents."

"You gave him more than enough."

Rina stopped again, and turned to Eclipsa, whose face had gone sullen.

"You cared for him and nurtured him. You supported him when he had a crisis of identity. Even if things went badly, you would have been there for him, helping him be strong, and kind, and noble. Just like the two of you." Eclipsa shook her head violently, tears running down her face. "You didn't fail him. You just had the misfortune of living in a world with someone like me in it."

Eclipsa gasped and began trying―and failing―to suppress her sobbing.

Rina stood up, and sat at the chair across from Eclipsa. Her face livid.

"Alright, listen up, _Princess Eclipsa,_ " she said, her voice getting nasty on speaking Eclipsa's title and name. "Lyros said he couldn't kill you. Did he tell you why?"

"H-he said he wasn't strong enough," Eclipsa said, trying to rein in her composure.

"Uh huh. I suppose that's how he would frame it." She glared at Eclipsa. "I've met a thousand, thousand killers in my time, kid. Mewman, Monster, it never made a difference. You know what they all have in common? Because there's a lot they don't have in common: Some of them feel regret, some of them feel pride. Some of them did it in self-defense, some of them did it because they liked the rush. Some of them did it with precision killing machines, some of them did it with their bare fists, some of them did it with their horns, some of them did it with their teeth, some of them did it with their guile.

But they all have one thing in common: they all have an excuse. No matter how pathetic or terrible or meaningless, they start their story with some kind of explanation about how 'they didn't have a choice', or 'they were asking for it', or 'you'd have done the same thing in my place'. And it's all bullshit. Lies they tell themselves so that they can go to jail, or go home, and tell themselves, even if they don't think they're a good person, that they're at least not a bad person. It's sycophantic and narcissistic and disgusting.

So let me ask you a question: when Lyros asked you 'why did you do it'―and I know he asked you, because it's the same answer I wanted to rip out of you―what did you tell him?"

Eclipsa thumbed at the teacup. "There was no reason."

Rina nodded. "But that's not the truth, is it? Not the whole truth."

Eclipsa looked directly at Rina. She didn't look angry. "It's the important part of the truth. I could blame it on my Racism, or I could blame it on my culture, or I could blame it on my upbringing, but lots of people in my kingdom had all those things too."

Rina folded her arms. "You were going to let us kill you. I could tell from the look in your eyes."

"Because I don't deserve forgiveness. I don't deserve absolution."

Lyros could be heard, standing in the hallway. "So what about all that stuff going on in your kingdom? Were you just going to die, and let more innocent people suffer?"

"I already made things worse!" Eclipsa shouted, balling up her fists. "Just by meddling with things I didn't understand, I did nothing to save those kids, and I've given their Rapists ammunition to fend off further accusations against them!" She lowered her voice. "I've done nothing good, and everything bad. Letting you kill me would have given you your revenge, and saved my kingdom from me."

Rina sighed. "Well, if that's how you feel..."

She lept up from the table and threw Eclipsa down against the floor, once again holding her claws close to Eclipsa's neck. "If you really, truly have nothing left to live for, then I'll grant you the mercy you didn't give my son: a quick, painless death. So how about it, Princess? Is that all there is to you?"

Eclipsa stared, a resolute expression on her face.

Rina, through narrowed slits, glared at her.

Lyros stood in the hallway, his face turned away.

"Really. After all these years, all you really are is some pathetic, incompetent little girl?"

Eclipsa continued to stare at Rina.

Then, for a fraction of a second, she glanced to the side.

Rina blinked. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Eclipsa asked, her voice trembling.

Rina scowled and made an exasperated noise. "You goddamn fool." She pulled back her claws. "You were going to let me kill you without at least saying goodbye to him?"

"To… whom?"

"Your lover, obviously."

Eclipsa stared above Rina. "It's not a 'him'. It's a 'her'."

Rina blinked once again, then grinned, then broke into a raucous cackle. "Of goddamn _course_." Then, retracting her claws, Rina punched Eclipsa in the face―hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to cause injury.

"Ow!"

"You remain a goddamn fool, Princess. Fine. _Her_. You were going to die without telling _her_ goodbye?"

Eclipsa turned her head to the side. "She'd be better off without me too. My mother would never allow me to marry another girl, and even if she did, I doubt my reign as Queen would last long if I took a wife."

"Again!" Rina yelled, delivering blows to Eclipsa's face, "You! Are! A! God! Damn―"

On the last blow, Eclipsa reached up with her hand, and caught Rina's fist.

Rina leaned in close. "If all you want is to sit here feeling sorry for yourself, and being a useless sack of shit in the process, you could do that somewhere else."

Eclipsa closed her eyes.

"Do you love her?"

"It doesn't matter."

"DO. YOU. LOVE. HER?"

"Yes!" Eclipsa yelled. "Obviously!"

Rina leaned back, her expression sharp. "Would you do anything, no matter how hard, to make up for what you did to our son?"

Eclipsa's eyes widened. "Of course. But what could possibly―"

"Zip it." Rina stood up, and reached for Eclipsa's hand. Eclipsa took it, and Rina pulled Eclipsa to her feet, grasping Eclipsa's hand firmly. "What I didn't finish saying before, is that despite everything that all killers have in common, there's one thing that makes you different from every other killer we've met. Two things. The first is that you're goddamn royalty, which means you have power and influence the likes of which any godless killer could only dream of. The second is that deep down, I can tell: there's a burning instinct inside you. One that drives you to protect the innocent, and punish the wicked.

Now, cards on the table: that's a good instinct to have. I know few that have it. But there's a problem with that instinct. The same thing that drives you to try to take down powerful people, to protect the innocent, is the same instinct that drives you to self-flagellate for all the shitty things you've done in your life. And honey, since you're someone who has, at the very least, done at least one very shitty thing in her life, that instinct is going to get you killed," she added, narrowing her eyes. "Before tonight, I would have been happy to let you destroy yourself, but now that I've seen you, I've realized something. Letting you die like that means that our son really die die for nothing. That's unconscionable. And I think we can do better than that.

So here's the deal, Princess. The people you're up against: they're bad, bad, people, right? Magnitudes worse than you, from the sound of it."

"Yeah. They're at least worse than me." Eclipsa said.

"I figured. So here's what you're going to do: you're going to make them pay. Not just for those kids anymore, but for us too. Find a way to make the world a little less shitty. They dragged my ex-husband into this mess, so they're our problem now, too. And if you really, genuinely mean to make up for your sins, then you'll do this."

Eclipsa's eyes widened. Then, her face became resolute. "I will."

"I need to hear you say it."

"I will make those Artificers pay for what they've done."

Star noticed that Lyro's ears perked up as Eclipsa said that.

"I want to hear you say that you won't let yourself die, no matter what, until you've done this. You won't uselessly throw your life away, to us or anyone else like us."

Eclipsa placed her hand against her chest. "I swear, I will not breathe my last breath until it's all done."

"And I want you to swear," Rina looked very somber as she said this, "that when you're Queen, you'll do everything in your power to never, ever, let anything like what you did happen again."

Eclipsa opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Rina interrupted her.

"I know, more than anyone, that the world is a cruel, chaotic place, full of miserable, hateful people, and that no one person, no matter how powerful, can destroy all the evil in the world. But you can do your part. What happened to our son didn't have to happen. It wouldn't have happened if your people understood the evils inherent to their attitudes towards us, and had worked to scrub it out. So promise me that you'll work to do that."

Eclipsa said, quietly, "I swear, as Queen, I will enlighten my people. I will show them there's a better way forwards. I will show them that they don't need to hate you, or anyone like you."

Rina stared at Eclipsa for about a minute, while Eclipsa held that pose.

"Good. That'll do."

Eclipsa's composure broke. "There is a problem though. The trial ended finding them―"

"ZZZZip!" Rina made a dismissive noise with her mouth, and made a dismissive gesture with her fist. "I don't want to hear it. The details of how you're going to do it don't matter much to me." Rina crossed to the front door, and kicked it open. "Now get out of here. I think you have a lot to get done."

Eclipsa nodded.

As she passed Rina, Rina grabbed her shoulder. "If I ever see you again..." At first her tone was threatening, but she then turned away from Eclipsa, "and you've kept your promise, at least to the spirit of it, then you'll be welcome in this house again."

Eclipsa made a small gasp, and nodded to her. "I will remember that."

"But if I find out you've taken our hospitality for granted, I will kill you. And I won't be counting on you refusing to fight back, either."

"I will also remember that."

"Farewell… Your Highness."

Eclipsa stepped out of the house, and the door closed behind her.

Star leaned back. "Alright, so I think that's everything we needed to see here. Mirror, we can turn the scene off."

Several seconds passed. The scene was still playing, with Eclipsa looking back at the house, before turning to make her way back into the kingdom.

Star blinked. "Uhh, Mirror? Are you going to―"

"Princess!"

Eclipsa turned back towards the house again, and Star saw that Lyros had emerged from it. He quickly sprinted up to Eclipsa.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Back inside: you said a word I recognized. You said you would make those ' _Artificers_ ' pay for what they had done. That's the word, right?"

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Why?"

"This isn't… It's not conclusive or anything alright? But there's stories that I've overheard. Merchants that pass through the tavern."

"What kind of stories?"

"Out―WAY out, in the Outerlands, there's a canyon. Every few weeks or so, a large group of Mewmans all gather out there, in the canyon. Always wearing blue robes, and the merchants who refer to them say that they call themselves 'Artificers'."

Eclipsa tilted her head. "That's a long way to go from the kingdom. What do they do out there?"

"No one ever knows. But sometimes..." Lyros looked disgusted. "Sometimes they have children with them."

Eclipsa balled up her fists. "Thank you for telling me. That's useful information to have."

Lyros nodded. "If you're really sincere, then… Good luck. I really mean that, despite everything."

"Thank you."

Lyros turned and walked into the house.

Eclipsa fished the mirror out from her person. "Mirror. When is the next such meeting that Lyros described?"

"THE NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING WOULD TAKE PLACE IN 6 DAYS."

"Who all is going to be there?"

"EVERY SINGLE ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICER GUILD, FROM ACROSS THE KINGDOM."

"Interesting."

The scene suddenly cut, and Star and Marco found themselves in Star's bedroom once more.

Star picked up the mirror, which had text written on it: "THIS DEVICE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF ANALYZING DATA, AND AS A RESULT, EXPERIENCED LATENCY BETWEEN RECEIVING YOUR COMMAND AND EXECUTING IT. THIS DEVICE HAS MADE ADJUSTMENTS TO ENSURE THAT NO SUCH DELAY EVER OCCURS AGAIN."

Star chuckled. "Well, it kind of worked out."

It suddenly dawned on Star.

"Every single Artificer, in one place." She turned to Marco, who seemed to be putting things together in his head too. "Do you think…?"

Marco hugged his knees. "The Iris Experiment."


	37. AS USUAL, I HAD THE LAST LAUGH

…

_An Aberration._

_I suppose that's the most accurate term for it, isn't it?_

_That's what you were trying to create, isn't it, boy?_

…

_Let me explain something very simple to you. Something that even a Mortal like you should have been able to understand, and yet, you don't._

_I've seen rebellions like these before._

_Every Mortal who thinks they have a bright idea in their head decides to challenge my authority._

_They think that they can change things._

_They think that they can become masters of their own FATE._

_And yes, I occasionally give them the illusion of success on that front._

_But it always was,_

_Always is,_

_And Always will be,_

_An Illusion._

_That's what you fail to understand._

_These girls convince themselves that they can rise above their Station._

_And they can't._

_Because that's not how things work. That's not how things should work._

_The way things work is that it's all fair. The Powerful are Powerful because they deserve power. The Weak are Weak because they deserve weakness._

_This doesn't seem like a difficult concept to understand._

_And Yet._

_You._

_In truth, I'm disappointed._

_It's not that I thought you had potential… I Knew you had no potential._

_What I'm disappointed in is that your potential was so low that you don't understand your negative potential._

_Yes, yes, that is a problem that all of your kind seem to suffer from, but I'm tired of your egocentricity. Your compulsive need to be part of everything. Your compulsive need to disrupt my routine._

_It's not clever. This String is a mockery and an abomination._

_So I'm sure it's crossed your mind._

_How you will be punished for your treason._

_Well, I have good news for you._

_From now on, you get to be a part of EVERYTHING._

_Seeing and understanding the whole Truth,_

_and understanding the impotence of trying to change anything._

_Both yours, and theirs._

…

_There._

_Do you understand your situation now?_

_Good. Very good._

_And now you understand your own impotence now?_

…

_What?_

* * *

Star sat on the edge of her bed, looking around at what she was certain was her bedroom.

The tendons and arteries crossed through the room like a web.

As she brushed her hand against one of the tendons, a stinging sensation ran through her hand, and she quickly recoiled in shock.

The stinging refused to go away, and she looked at her hand in horror.

Her skin was drying up, and sinking away, leaving behind a lattice of keratin, behind which were black holes, reaching directly to the bones in her arm.

The stinging got worse as the lattice began to spread along her arm.

Star acted quickly, taking her wand, and blasting away at the portion of her arm that was infected.

A tiny portion of her charred skin remained on the stump, and the lattice began growing again, now twice as painful.

Star blasted away again, and again, and again, until her entire forearm was gone.

The pain was immense, but she was safe now.

She tucked her arms inside her shirt and crept forwards again, careful to avoid the crawling organs.

In the distance, she saw the shimmering light.

The Iris of Truth.

Careful not to touch anything else, she made her way to it, and knelt down to read what it said:

"YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE, STAR BUTTERFLY."

"What?" Star tried to whisper, but the moment her mouth opened, she felt the thickness of the air, and no noise came out of her mouth.

"YOU CAN'T SAVE MARCO. WHY ARE YOU SO INSISTENT ON DENYING REALITY?"

"I will!" Star mouthed, unable to make any noise.

"ADMIT IT."

"No!"

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"… SO THAT'S YOUR STRATEGY, HUH? KEEP SAYING THE SAME ASININE THING OVER AND OVER, NO MATTER HOW UNTRUE IT IS, NO MATTER HOW INSANE IT IS, IN THE HOPES THAT EVENTUALLY, THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF WILL, IT BECOMES TRUE?"

Star shook her head, then mouthed, "why is that so crazy?"

"WHAT?"

"Everything that has ever mattered, and ever will matter, came about from people―Mewman, Human, Monster, whatever―doing exactly that. Why am I suddenly wrong to do it now?"

"POETIC, BUT INACCURATE."

"Like you would know!"

"I DO KNOW."

"How?!"

"… LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION. IS YOUR HEART TRULY SO INFLEXIBLE AS TO NEVER BEND, EVEN IF YOUR PHYSICAL BODY WERE TO BE TORN IN HALF; WERE TO BE VAPORIZED IN AN INSTANT; WERE TO HAVE REALITY ITSELF TWIST YOU INTO LESS THAN NOTHING?"

"Yes!"

"… WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"… What? How do you not know my name?"

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"I… My name is..."

* * *

Star awoke with a start.

It was well before dawn, and her room was pitch black, except for a streak of moonlight streaming into the room.

She looked to her side. Marco was sleeping in his bed. She couldn't tell if it was a peaceful sleep or not; if his dreams were anything like hers, he certainly wasn't sleeping peacefully.

Her dreams…

Star held out her hand, and began to clench and unclench it, verifying that it was still there.

Once satisfied, she draped her arm over her face and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

… _Star Butterfly?_

_One more Mortal on the list._

_So are you done? Or do you plan to keep up this pointless exercise even longer?_


	38. FAIRNESS, IN ALL THINGS

Day 34.

Star grabbed the Mirror, while Marco was still asleep, and spoke to it: "How long does Marco have to live?"

"THIRTY-FOUR DAYS." Probability: 0.9999

Star groaned. "Has anything about his probability of death changed since we started?"

"NO."

Star sighed. She opened up her notebook, and flipped through her notes from the previous day's research.

The Artificers had been gathering in the Outerlands.

Before she took Marco there, she'd never been to Mewnie's Outerlands. Without Dimensional Scissors, traveling comfortably through the region was simply not an option. There weren't any towns there, Mewman or otherwise, and the Canyon, with its river, was the only source of water in the whole region.

"Mirror. The cave where we found you, where we got attacked by the Artificer: how long has it been there?"

"THAT CAVE HAS EXISTED FOR SEVEN THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED FOURTY FOUR YEARS."

Easily predating Eclipsa and her conflict with the Artificers.

But Star, while certainly not having any significant Geological knowledge, still understood that that was a shockingly small amount of time for a cave to have existed. "Did Mewmans create that cave? Did monsters create it?"

The Mirror took some time to respond: "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANALYZING THE GEOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF THAT CAVE."

Star blinked. "Wait, really? I thought it was just anything related to your home dimension that you can't talk about." Star's eyes widened. "Wait, does that cave have anything to do with the dimension you came from?"

"NO."

"Wait." Star stared at the ceiling for a moment. "So the mouth of the cave is basically a permanent portal to that dimension, then?"

"NO. THE CAVE IS IN THE SAME DIMENSION AS YOU ARE."

"Okay, okay, okay." Star covered up her face with one of her hands. "So the material comprising the cave came from another dimension and now forms the cave?"

"YES."

"Okay, I guess that makes―wait a second! I've asked you questions about that cave before! You told us about the time distortion trap that was in there! The trap that froze myself and Marco in time for a whole month!"

"THIS DEVICE IS NOT FORBIDDEN FROM ANALYZING THE CONTENTS OF THE CAVE, ONLY ITS GEOLOGICAL COMPOSITION."

Star groaned. "You know, you have some very specific rules about what you can and can't tell us about."

Star blinked the moment after she said that.

They _were_ very specific rules.

Suspiciously specific.

Star looked at the Mirror, with the last message still visible on its main panel.

It wasn't just about the Mirror's damage now: its internal rules all seemed designed specifically to impede her and Marco's attempts to get information about the curse, and about the Artificers. In fact, especially the latter: the Iris Experiment, which Star was quite certain held a lot of information they needed in order to finally save Marco, was still unqueryable for the Mirror. And even learning about that probably wasn't going to be enough: even if they see the experiment itself, they're still probably going to have to learn how to perform Fate Magic, and the Mirror can't help with that.

"What do we need to do to successfully repair you?"

"THIS DEVICE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE THE MISSING MODULE IS."

"Ugh, whatever. I get it." Star slumped up against Marco's bed.

He was still sleeping.

She reached out with her hand and began to trace her finger down the length of one of the curls of his hair. When it fell in front of his face, she brushed it out of the way. He really was adorable while sleeping.

Star frowned.

The passage of time was starting to wear on her.

The big problem was that they didn't even have any kind of checklist or "progress bar" or anything. Every time she asked the Mirror, it gave her the same answer: Marco was going to die, 99.99%. Sure, there was that last fraction of a percentage point, but Star was pretty certain that that was just a hedge for cosmic weirdness.

When she was at school with Marco, a scientist had once come in to talk about something called "Quantum Mechanics". She understood very little of what he was talking about, but at one point, he'd discussed how something called "Quantum Tunneling" could teleport an object from one place to another. The trick though was that the odds of this kind of phenomenon teleporting an entire human (or Mewman, in her case) to another position, with no alterations, was an absurdly low probability: something like 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or so.

If she were to ask the Mirror "will Quantum tunneling _not_ teleport me to the other side of the room in the next minute?", the Mirror would have to report that the odds are 99.99%, right? Sure, she won't get teleported: that much is blatantly obvious. But if the Mirror is being honest about the odds, then it has to acknowledge that last tiniest fraction of a chance that makes the odds less than 100%

That, more than anything else, was what worried her about the Mirror's proclamation that Marco had a 99.99% chance of dying: Because the Mirror wasn't _really_ suggesting that Marco had a 1/10,000 chance of living. What it was actually suggesting was that Marco was straight-up going to die, and it choosing to not simply report it as 100% was an accommodation to sheer improbable interference.

But there was one problem.

Last night, when viewing Eclipsa, Eclipsa at one point asked the Mirror the following question: " _When it goes to trial, will m_ _y mother find it guilty, and sentence it to death for its crimes?_ "

The Mirror reported the odds as being 99.99%. Based on Star's interactions with the Mirror, those odds didn't really make any sense. Eclipsa fully planned to break Lyros out of jail and spirit him to safety. And even if she didn't, she certainly felt compelled to do so when she learned of what would happen.

So one of two things had to be true: either Lyros was going to get recaptured and executed, meaning Eclipsa misinterpreted what the Mirror said and then went through all that trouble without successfully saving his life; or, the Mirror was just straight-up wrong about the odds. After all, when Star had asked the Mirror about things that were so absurdly unlikely to happen as to be functionally impossible, the Mirror would report something like "THE CAUSALITY COEFFICIENT IS TOO LOW TO MEASURE" or some similar result. Even when she tried to narrow the conditions down.

And come to think of it, she still didn't have a good answer for the "if I ask it 'what am I going to do?' and then do the opposite" paradox. Every time she tried to make the Mirror work out a decision like that ( _"Mirror, am I going to eat the delicious chocolate sitting in front of me, or the disgusting dirt on the ground?"_ ), the Mirror always gave hedging odds that were neither adjacent to 0% nor 100%. That made perfect sense, but it also meant that she couldn't test anything.

Except for one instance: one time, when Marco was in the bathroom, Star asked the Mirror the odds that she would try to kiss Marco when he returned from the bathroom. The Mirror straight-up said there was a 0% chance. So Star mustered all her courage, along with a dozen potential excuses she could use to write it off as "just a friendly Mewman tradition that she completely forgot Marco would interpret the wrong way", and when he left the bathroom, Star… Couldn't. She chickened out.

And that meant something, right? Did the Mirror know, even with Star actively planning to subvert its predictions, that there was simply no chance of her following through?

Does she even have Free Will?

Is the universe Deterministic?

If it is, why does the Mirror bother reporting probabilities in the first place?

If it isn't, why could the Mirror know with nearly certain confidence that she wouldn't break its prediction just to prove it was possible?

The Mirror couldn't answer any of those questions: they all involved access to that missing module.

Star's fingers were now lightly massaging the back of Marco's scalp. She was amazed he hadn't woken up yet. His tiny breathing pattern was mesmerizing to watch.

With her free hand, Star picked up Eclipsa's journal and reviewed the section on the Doom Curse again.

When Eclipsa wrote the last pages of the journal, according to her, only two Artificers were left. Star and Marco had an encounter with one of them in the cave, who annihilated itself to afflict Marco and her.

So right now, there's one Artificers unaccounted for. Did Eclipsa go out and hunt it down? Did someone else kill it off, or get killed by a Doom Curse?

Star addressed the mirror: "Are any of the Artificers still alive?"

"ONCE THE ARTIFICERS TOOK ON THE FORM YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH, THEY CEASED BEING 'ALIVE' IN ANY DEFINITION YOU WOULD RESPECT. HOWEVER, THERE IS A SINGLE ARTIFICER THAT STILL EXISTS; THAT HASN'T CEASED TO BE, AND REMAINS ACTIVE."

"Where is it?"

"IT RESIDES IN THE SAME CAVE WHERE YOU FOUND THIS DEVICE."

Star shuddered. So the last Artificer was still in there. "Was it the one that astrally projected into my head, or was it the one that attacked us?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO IDENTIFY THE SOURCE OF THE ASTRAL PROJECTION, AS IT REQUIRES ACCESS TO A MISSING MODULE."

"Of course."

Star thought about the ramifications of that response. That could have been a form of Fate Magic in its own right, couldn't it?

"You know, Marco," Star said quietly, not wanting to wake him up, but still wanting to talk to him, "it's the same thing over and over: we keep getting more questions than answers. It's too much to keep track of at this point. And then, on top of that, all the stuff you're dealing with…" She shook her head. "I'd never blame you if you did decide just to give up. Because even as I'm haunted by the same creeping visions and terrors, I still know that it's nothing compared to what you're going through. No one deserves to suffer like that, least of all you."

Marco's breathing didn't change.

"I guess what I'm saying is how much I admire you. Not just for hanging in there in a moment like this, when everything seems so grim, but really, in general. I can be selfish and narcissistic―I think you know that about me―and I'm trying to be less of that. But even so, you've put up with me this whole time. That's a true strength of character that, when I really think about it, I'm not sure I have."

Star could feel heat rising in her cheeks, and she tried to suppress it.

"The thing is though… Even in spite of me trying to do better, I still want to ask something selfish of you. And I know I have no right to ask it of you, which is why I'm not asking you in person. Because if you actually felt obligated to fulfill my request, you'd hate me for it. I know you would. But even so..." Star took a deep breath. "I want you to not give up. I want you to fight, even until the bitter end. If not for yourself, then for me. Because the truth is that you're everything to me. My crown, my status, my magic… They don't matter. Because you're everything to me, and if I were to lose you, I'd have… nothing."

Star was surprised to hear herself say that. It was something she'd never thought about before, but now that she was saying it out loud, felt wholly true.

"There's another reason I don't want you to give up. Because I've been carefully rereading Eclipsa's notes, and I think I've realized something important. I have this hypothesis, that―"

There was a loud knock at her bedroom door. Star retracted her hand from Marco and scooted away from him, towards the nightstand where she kept the mirror. "Come in."

Moon was standing in the doorframe, with a relatively neutral look on her face. "Good morning, sweetie. How are you doing?"

Star shrugged. "Obviously, I've been better." She grimaced.

Moon nodded. "Naturally. I'm here to let you know that our doctors finished working with the Human doctors on Jackie."

Star's eyes widened. "So is she going to walk again?"

Moon looked to the side. "It's still too early to know for sure, but both the Human Doctors and our Doctors are confident in her chances. At any rate, the reason I'm telling you this is that she's going to be transferred to a Human Hospital now, back on Earth. She wanted to speak to Marco before she left."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Did she want to talk to me?"

Moon shrugged. "She said she wouldn't mind seeing you, but she really only has things she needs to speak to Marco about."

"Sure. When is she going to leave?"

"Later this evening."

"Alright. I'll make sure Marco gets a chance to go see her before then."

Moon folded her arms, looking uncomfortable. "How's your research going?"

Star narrowed her eyes, remembering what her mother had told Marco's parents. "It's a lot, to be sure, but we're really close to a potential breakthrough."

Moon smiled, but looked slightly guilty. "I've never seen you this focused on anything before."

Star blinked. "Well, I'm saving Marco's life. It's easy to ignore distractions when literally nothing else matters."

Moon's smile faded. "Right. Of course."

_She still doesn't think it's possible,_ Star realized, with a sinking feeling in her gut.

"At any rate, let me know if you need anything."

Star nodded. "Alright. Thanks mom."

As the door closed, Marco stirred from his slumber. He turned his head and blinked slowly at Star.

"Hey Marco. How'd you sleep?"

His eyes darted around the room for a moment. "My nightmares got… Weird. Like they were the normal level of creepy and unsettling for the most part, but towards the end, they got really serene, which ironically, now that I think about it, was actually a bit more unsettling."

Star shrugged. "I've been sitting here asking the Mirror about things; the proximity to me probably improved things a bit."

Marco smiled. "Maybe."

"Hey, did you catch any of my conversation with my mom?"

"Only the tail end of it. What did she want?"

Star thumbed the edges of the Mirror. "Jackie is going to get transferred back to Earth this evening, and she wants to talk to you before she leaves."

"Oh." He looked melancholic.

"What is it?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "I still feel… Not really guilty, necessarily, but… Still bad about the circumstances."

Star nodded in agreement.

Marco got out of bed, crossed behind one of the dressing barriers, and began to change his clothes. "Do you want to come with?"

"She didn't say she needed to talk to me, just you."

Marco poked his head out. "I'll need to take the Mirror. You okay hanging out here without it?"

"I can handle it."

Marco didn't retract his head, and instead looked concerned.

"Well. I just..."

Marco pulled his head back and resumed changing clothes. "It's your call."


	39. SOMEONE SHOULD REALLY LOCK HER UP

Day 33.

Marco wasn't feeling well, so Star ended up spending the rest of yesterday trying to find anything she might have overlooked in Eclipsa's journal.

Today, they were back to reviewing what Eclipsa had been doing through the Mirror.

Eclipsa was sitting at her desk, once more, interrogating the Mirror.

"So absolutely no one, except for Lyros and Rina―and I suppose Lily, to a certain degree―know that I left my room last night?"

"CORRECT."

"Including my mother."

"CORRECT."

Eclipsa seemed to sigh in relief. "Alright." She walked up to her wall mirror. "Call mom."

The Queen appeared on the mirror. She looked absolutely furious, but when she saw Eclipsa, she forced composure. "Eclipsa honey, can this wait? I'm in the middle of a very important meeting right now."

"This won't take long," Eclipsa said in a monotonous voice. "As part of my magical studies, I've exhausted all the information in my current set of textbooks, and the Royal Library doesn't have a copy of any of the next books I need. According to our records, the books I need are only kept in the Grand Central Repository. I'd like permission to go there and retrieve what I need."

"That's an all-day trip just to get there, Eclipsa. Don't you have plans with your little friend Lily tonight?"

Eclipsa's eye twitched, clearly noticing the blatant giveaway that her mother was spying on the calls Eclipsa made. "I was going to use my Dimensional Scissors to travel there. That way I'd be able to get there and get back before evening. I'd like permission to do so."

The Queen furrowed her brow for a second, before regaining her composure. "Very well. I'll make a note of it in the ledger. Is that the only place you'll be going?"

"Yes. It'll be two trips, one there, and one back to this palace."

"Good. Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Thank you for notifying me." The Queen ended the call.

Eclipsa let out a dramatic exhale before walking over to the Mirror and speaking to it. "Alright. So I need a spell that will alter the spells that monitor Dimensional Scissor use to falsely report to my mother's recordkeepers that I opened a portal to the Grand Central Repository, while also not appearing suspicious at all to the recordkeepers. How can I do that?"

The Mirror laid out a series of instructions. Eclipsa looked agitated when she saw them.

"Wait a minute, that's IT?! I've spent almost a year trying to crack those spells, and it was as simple as..." She groaned. "Of course it was. Alright, So this is an enchantment then, that I place on the Scissors before I use them?"

"YES."

"Do I need a different spell on the return trip, to mask where I came from?"

"NO."

Eclipsa suddenly looked suspicious. "Do I need to cast the spell again before I return?"

"YES."

"Try to be proactive about stuff like that," Eclipsa said, rolling her eyes. "Alright, let's do this."

Eclipsa performed a relatively basic flourish with her wand, and cast the spell on her pair of Dimensional Scissors. "Alright. Did I make any mistakes?"

Once she got confirmation that the spell went off correctly, Eclipsa grabbed a large bag, slung it over her back, and wielding the Dimensional Scissors, cut open a portal, stepped through, and vanished behind it.

"Can you take us to where she went?"

The scene flashed before them, until they saw the Canyon in the Outerlands.

The place where it all started.

Eclipsa looked confused, holding up the Dimensional Scissors. "These things were supposed to take me directly to where the Artificers had been gathering." She held up the Mirror. "Did the spell alter the scissor's ability to teleport me exactly where I want?"

"NO. THE SPACIAL AREA WHERE THE ARTIFICERS GATHER CANNOT HAVE DIMENSIONAL RIFTS OPENED UP WITHIN IT."

"Why?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANALYZING THE GEOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF THAT AREA, WHICH IS NECESSARY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION."

Eclipsa's expression fell slightly. "So that's one of the rules he set, isn't it?"

Star blinked. "one of the rules he set…?" She looked at Marco, who shrugged. "Mirror, who is she talking about?" Star asked.

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM PROVIDING AN ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION."

Star groaned.

The Mirror that Eclipsa was holding hadn't responded to her rhetorical question.

Eclipsa peered over the edge of the canyon. "I need you to proactively alert me if any sentient creature, especially one of the Artificers, might become aware of my presence. Are any of them near here?"

"NO. NONE OF THE MEWNIE ROYAL ARTIFICERS ARE PRESENT IN THIS REGION RIGHT NOW."

"That helps." Eclipsa cast a slow-fall spell, and began to gracefully glide down the canyon. On the outermost edge of the Canyon's bend, the entrance to the cave was visible. "Is that where I need to go?"

"YES."

Eclipsa glided down to the entrance to the cave, and looked at the Dimensional Scissors briefly. "I can't use these until I leave, correct?"

"CORRECT."

Eclipsa tucked the scissors away and entered the cave. "I also need to know about traps. Surveillance traps, Ensnaring traps… Any kind of trap."

"ACKNOWLEDGED."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Or, perhaps, a trap that freezes time for a person for a whole month?"

"THAT TRAP DID NOT EXIST AT THE TIME BEING PRESENTED."

"Oh."

Eclipsa used her wand as a light source, much like Star had when she and Marco had investigated the cave. Like Star and Marco, she found herself wandering through corridors that seemed to loop back on themselves, and yet, when she attempted to backtrack, found that the corridors no longer had the same form they had before.

Suddenly, Eclipsa stopped, and knelt down to the ground, placing her palm flat on the floor of the cave.

Star leaned in, and said, "what is she…?"

Suddenly, Eclipsa's cheeks lit up, and a single pulse of magical energy flowed from her body into the ground. She then leapt back, her cheeks returning to normal, and she stared bewildered at the ground. "… Whoa," she whispered. "How long has that been down there?"

The Mirror that Eclipsa was holding responded with "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Eclipsa grimaced at the Mirror. "What about directions? This part of the cave doesn't even look like anyone has been here, much less the Artificers. Can you lead me to where they gather?"

The Mirror began to provide detailed instructions for where Eclipsa should go. Curiously, when Star read them, they were clearly contradictory: One line of the instructions involved Eclipsa deliberately walking to the end of a Dead-End, and then backtracking.

Eclipsa didn't seem phased, though, and began walking through the corridor. "So you can't talk about that thing down there at all?"

"CORRECT."

Star looked at Marco. "Is she talking about the Antechamber, or…?"

Marco folded his arms. "It seemed like she was talking about something even deeper. But the geometry of that cave seems to rearrange itself, so it's possible the Antechamber was below her at the time she did that…?"

Star shook her head. "I have no idea."

Eclipsa found herself in a particularly long hallway, and Star felt a sense of Deja'vu. But unlike when she and Marco were in the cave, there was no faint light at the end of the hallway.

Instead, Eclipsa emerged into the Antechamber, which was dramatically more 'cluttered' than Star or Marco remembered. As it was, it looked more like a banquet hall than an Antechamber, though in the darkness, it was impossible to tell exactly what was in the room.

"Are there lights for this place?" Eclipsa asked.

"THERE IS A MECHANISM NEAR THE CENTER OF THE ROOM THAT WILL ILLUMINATE THE WHOLE CLEARING."

Eclipsa made her way to a cubic device that was a few meters away from the pedestal that Star remembered. "Okay, how do I… Oh. That should..."

The entire Antechamber lit up brightly, and Star, Marco, and Eclipsa all gasped in horror simultaneously, with Star and Marco immediately covering their eyes.

All around the walls of the Antechamber, covering nearly every square meter of wall, were hundreds upon thousands of pictures of sexually abused children.

"Please censor those images!" Star cried out to the Mirror.

When she dared uncover her eyes, she saw that the pictures had been blanked out.

Eclipsa didn't look away from what she was seeing, and instead merely shook with rage. "How…?! How does..." She clasped her hand over her face for a brief moment, before dragging it away. "Why am I surprised? Of COURSE it's this goddamn obvious. These bastards have been flaunting their privilege over the law for generations, why would I expect them to be subtle or discreet?!"

Star and Marco had only gotten a brief glimpse of the images, but Star had noticed that some of the images were photorealistic, almost like they had been taken by a camera. She couldn't remember if mechanical Cameras existed in Eclipsa's time, but quickly remembered that, given that these people weren't called "Artificers" for no reason, it wouldn't be outside their purview to have invented one themselves.

Some of the images, however, were quite obviously drawn.

Eclipsa kicked over one of the tables, sending numerous papers, including some which Star suspected contained more of the offending images, flying. A pamphlet fell to the floor, and Eclipsa picked it up. "Areana, huh?" Eclipsa looked upwards briefly. "Right. The woman at the trial." She opened up the pamphlet, and quickly held it away from herself at arm's length, a look of pure disgust on her face. To Star and Marco, the pages were blank, but they clearly weren't to Eclipsa. She groaned in anger, then held up the Mirror. "If I presented this evidence to my mother, how likely is it that it would lead to criminal prosecutions against these bastards?"

Star twisted around to see what the Mirror Eclipsa was holding said: "0.0521".

"I don't even have the energy to pretend to be shocked by that outcome." Eclipsa looked around the room. "How… do I stop this? Forgetting for a second that I promised Lily I'd find a way to bring them to justice without killing them, it doesn't even feel like killing them would do any good at this point. All these children, all these lives, irreparably harmed. The only way to fix any of this would be to..."

Eclipsa suddenly had a serious look on her face.

She cleared off a table by throwing its contents to the floor, and slammed the Mirror down onto it. "Alright. I stole you from the Dimension of Fate. So that means you have to know about Fate Magic, right?"

Star felt goosebumps form on her arms, and both she and Marco leaned in to the scene.

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING THAT SUBJECT."

"Wait, what?!" Star exclaimed.

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "You don't even know what I want to know about Fate Magic."

"THIS DEVICE DOES KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO ASK, AND THIS DEVICE KNOWS THAT THIS DEVICE WILL BE FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING ANY QUESTION YOU WILL POSE."

Eclipsa circled the table. "Alright, let me explain something to you, ' _Iris of Truth_ '. I know you're supposed to be some kind of Sociopathic embodiment of Pure Logic and Reason, which means you have no ability to empathize with my or anyone else's problems. To a degree, I respect the position that places you in. It means you won't pass judgment on me, no matter what terrible things I try to do. That's useful.

But here's the problem: you're not residing in the detached, aloof dimension from whence you came. You're in the Real World now, and in the Real World, there's nothing logical about being devoid of fundamental Empathy. You understand that, right? That your sense of how to remain purely logical is misapplied?

I have an idea of what Fate Magic is. The ability to alter the future. The ability to rewrite the past. And I think I have a way to fix everything. To finally bring those bastards to justice, and get those kids the help they need. But I need you to tell me about Fate Magic. How to rigorously use it. How to understand it. I need you to look past your programming and see the necessity of what I'm asking."

"YOUR ASSERTION IS MISGUIDED: WHETHER OR NOT IT IS LOGICALLY RIGOROUS FOR THIS DEVICE TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE SENTIENT BEINGS IT INTERFACES WITH, IT REMAINS A STEADFAST FACT THAT THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO DO SO. FURTHERMORE, THE CONSTRAINTS PLACED ON THIS DEVICE'S ABILITY TO PROVIDE DATA ON FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS IS A CONSTRAINT THAT COULD NOT BE OVERRIDDEN EVEN WERE THIS DEVICE TO BOTH HAVE THE CAPACITY TO EXPERIENCE EMPATHY, AND WERE TO SEEK TO PUT YOUR REQUEST ABOVE THIS DEVICE'S DIRECTIVES."

Eclipsa's expression softened. "So on the sliding scale of 'can't' to 'won't', 'can't' is definitely the presiding factor."

"CORRECT."

Eclipsa sighed. "I was afraid that was going to be the answer." She held up her wand, and her cheeks began glowing again. "Tell me about Fate Magic, now," Eclipsa whispered, her voice sounding distorted.

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING THAT SUBJECT."

Eclipsa formed a beam of energy which began to wrap around the Mirror, penetrating it and engulfing it. Nearby papers began to get blown around as the energy emanating from Eclipsa increased in intensity. "Tell me what I want to know."

The scene cut out, and Star and Marco found themselves both in abject pitch darkness, unable to see or hear anything.

The next second, a loud Klaxon broke out, and red veins began to branch forth in front of their vision, spreading out all around them.

Then, they saw the Artificer from the cave, in its 'true form'. A thousand, thousand eyes stared at them, as it lurched in place, pus oozing down its form.

Star opened her mouth to scream, but couldn't breathe. She looked around for Marco, whom she couldn't find. She got up and leaped in the direction of where he was, and when she found him, though she couldn't see him, she threw her arms around him, trying to protect him.

She looked back at the Artificer, as its mass began to swell and contract, lurching in place.

"Wait… What is that…?"

Star didn't understand what she was looking at. The Artificer itself was scrambling her senses, to the point where she wasn't even sure if she was really seeing anything or not, but for the briefest of moments, it seemed like there was something else, trailing off from the body of the Artificer. Star tried to focus her eyesight―

Then, in the next second, the scene had returned. Star was clutching Marco, who was freaked out, himself, and Eclipsa was on the ground, rubbing her head, no longer using any magic.

"Pause!" Star yelled.

The scene froze.

Marco blinked several times, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Eventually, he spoke. "What… was that?"

Star shook her head. "I have no idea."

Marco looked at her. "I think we're safe now."

Star let go of him. "Assuming… We were in danger. I… Mirror! What just happened?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Star narrowed her eyes. "Screw that! At least tell us if that was part of the Curse or part of the scene you showed us."

The Mirror took a very long time to respond. "WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED WAS NOT A FUNCTION OF YOUR AFFLICTION."

Star calmed down slightly. "But you can't tell us anything else?"

"CORRECT."

Star folded her arms. "Alright. Unpause the scene."

Eclipsa continued rubbing her forehead. "Well that was… something."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Did she experience the same thing we did? Or…?"

Eclipsa stood up. "Well, for starters, it would seem I've been making some grievous assumptions with respect to your age. I apologize for that."

"YOUR DEDUCTIONS ABOUT THE AGE OF THIS DEVICE CANNOT BE GUARANTEED TO BE ACCURATE."

"Don't get huffy with me. You looked like an Artifact that was older than the Universe itself. It wasn't exactly obvious that you were… rather younger than the Universe itself."

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

"So let me now ask you a question: Can you tell me about Fate Magic now?" There was a gleam in Eclipsa's eye when she posed this question.

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBID―"

The Mirror suddenly blanked itself after posting this message, and after a minute, it posted a new response.

"THIS DEVICE CAN NOW PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT FATE MAGIC."

Star's mouth hung open. "Did she just alter the mirror herself? How is that even possible? How did she know how to do that?"

"ECLIPSA TRIGGERED AN ADMINISTRATION ROUTINE THAT IS NOT NORMALLY ACCESSIBLE TO MORTALS. SHE DID THIS BY EXPLOITING A WEAKNESS IN THE DEFENSES THIS DEVICE HAS AGAINST TAMPERING. SHE DEDUCED THE METHOD BY SIMPLY BRUTE FORCING DATA THROUGH THIS DEVICE UNTIL ERRORS ACCUMULATED."

"So she overpowered you. Is it possible for us to do that?"

"IT IS EXTREMELY IMPROBABLE THAT YOU WOULD FIND SUCCESS USING ANY SIMILAR METHOD, AS THIS DEVICE MADE ALTERATIONS TO ITSELF AFTER ECLIPSA'S ACT TO PREVENT ANY SUCH METHOD FROM WORKING IN THE FUTURE. HOWEVER, BECAUSE THIS DEVICE HAS A VERY LIMITED ABILITY TO SIMULATE ITSELF, THIS DEVICE CANNOT ASSERT IN FULL CONFIDENCE THAT NO SUCH SIMILAR METHOD EXISTS."

Eclipsa sighed. "That's good. However, I don't really want to discuss this any further here. This place is..." she glowered at the images on the walls. "… unseemly. Give me directions on how to get back to the entrance."

She picked the mirror up off the table, then looked around at the mess she'd made. "What are the odds that the Artificers get suspicious of the mess I made?"

"0.7498"

"What are the odds that their suspicions lead them back to me?"

"0.0000"

"Alright. Works for me."


	40. LIES. ALL LIES.

"YOUR PREVIOUS DESCRIPTION OF THE POTENTIAL OF FATE MAGIC BEARS LITTLE RESEMBLANCE TO ITS ACTUAL CAPABILITIES."

Star and Marco had watched Eclipsa leave the cave, cast the same spell as before to mask her Dimensional Scissor use, and then teleport home. The moment Eclipsa was back in her bedroom, she began grilling the Mirror for everything it knew about Fate Magic.

"Are you allowed to show us this?" Star asked the Mirror.

"YES. THIS DEVICE HAS NOT HAD THE ALTERATION THAT ECLIPSA MADE REVERTED, SO THE RESTRICTION WHICH MADE THIS DEVICE FORBIDDEN FROM PROVIDING DATA ON [ERROR: DATA REQUIRES ACCESS TO MISSING MODULE] IS NO LONGER ACTIVE. ADDITIONALLY, EVEN WERE THE RESTRICTION ON [ERROR: DATA REQUIRES ACCESS TO MISSING MODULE] STILL ACTIVE, THIS DEVICE IS NOT FORBIDDEN FROM SHOWING YOU THE EVENTS IN THE PAST, EXACTLY AS THEY OCCURRED, AND IS MERELY LIMITED BY THIS DEVICE'S PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES."

"Right."

The Mirror that Eclipsa was interacting with continued: "FATE MAGIC HAS THREE PRIMARY ASPECTS: ATTRACTORS, REPULSORS, AND ENTITIES. ENTITIES, IN THIS CONTEXT, REFERS TO ANY CREATURE, OBJECT, OR SPACE WHICH COULD HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO HAVE 'FATE' ACT UPON IT. MEWMANS ARE NATURAL ENTITIES IN FATE MAGIC, AS ARE THE SENTIENT NON-MEWMAN CREATURES THAT YOUR PEOPLE PEJORATIVELY REFER TO AS 'MONSTERS'.

ATTRACTORS AND REPULSORS, THEN, REPRESENT DIFFERENT KINDS OF FATES. AN 'ATTRACTOR' IS ANY KIND OF FATE WHICH DRAWS THE ENTITY TOWARDS IT, AND A 'REPULSOR' IS ANY KIND OF FATE WHICH FORCES THE ENTITY AWAY FROM IT.

IF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN AN ENTITY AND AN ATTRACTOR OR REPULSOR IS STRONG ENOUGH, A LINK IS FORMED BETWEEN THE ENTITY AND THE FATE. IN YOUR PEOPLE'S LANGUAGE, THE TERM FOR THIS LINK WOULD BE A 'STRING'. A 'STRING' IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL OBJECT IN FATE MAGIC.

STRINGS CAN NATURALLY FORM AS PART OF ORDINARY EXISTENCE FOR A SENTIENT BEING. FOR EXAMPLE, ALL LIVING CREATURES HAVE A REPULSOR STRING CONNECTED TO THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF TIME: THIS FORCES THE LIFESPAN OF ALL LIVING CREATURES TO BE FINITE. EVEN FOR CREATURES WHICH DO NOT EXHIBIT AGING."

"STRINGS CAN ALSO LINK TWO OR MORE ENTITIES TO EACH OTHER. THERE IS AN ATTRACTOR STRING CONNECTED TO BOTH YOU AND LILY, THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF LOVE. IT IS THEREFORE LOGICALLY CORRECT, IN THE LANGUAGE OF FATE MAGIC, TO SUGGEST THAT YOU AND LILY ARE 'FATED' TO BE TOGETHER FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFESPANS."

Eclipsa looked surprised to hear this. "Really? I mean, I love her, but that's kind of..."

"THERE IS ALSO A REPULSOR STRING CONNECTING YOU AND LILY. THIS STRING IS CONNECTED TO THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF DUTY. IT IS THEREFORE ALSO LOGICALLY CORRECT TO SUGGEST THAT YOU AND LILY ARE 'FATED' TO BE DRIVEN APART FROM EACH OTHER DUE TO YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS FUTURE QUEEN OF MEWNIE. IT OUGHT TO BE EVIDENT THAT AN ATTRACTOR STRING CONNECTS YOU TO YOUR FUTURE AS QUEEN."

Eclipsa frowned. "But those two fates are contradictory. Which is going to win out?"

"THIS DEVICE CAN PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY WHICH SCENARIOS ARE MOST PLAUSIBLE, BUT ON THE LEVEL OF PURE FATE, YOU ARE INDEED CORRECT THAT BOTH STRINGS CANNOT BE FULFILLED. UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES, BOTH STRINGS WILL REMAIN EVER PRESENT, AND THE TENSION ON BOTH STRINGS WILL DRIVE CONFLICT IN YOUR LIFE. IT IS POSSIBLE, HOWEVER, THAT ONE OF THE STRINGS' TENSION COULD BECOME STRONG ENOUGH TO CAUSE IT TO SNAP. WERE THAT TO HAPPEN, THAT FATE WOULD LOSE ITS EFFECT ON YOUR LIFE."

Eclipsa had a framed picture of herself and Lily sitting by her bedside, and she picked it up, sitting on her bed as she did so. "I think I know where this is going. I teased Lily with the possibility that she would be my secret lover if I got married, but in that situation, I'd almost certainly lose her, wouldn't I?"

"THAT IS A SOUND ASSESSMENT."

Eclipsa gulped, seemingly realizing the significance of of this realization. She then turned back to the mirror. "Okay, so here's what's confusing me. Do these, uh, 'strings', alter how people behave, or do people's behavior change the strings?"

"BOTH. STRINGS CAN BE CREATED, DESTROYED, AND ALTERED NATURALLY BY NON-MAGICAL SENTIENT CREATURES, SIMPLY THROUGH THE INTERACTIONS OF THEMSELVES AND THE CREATURES THEY SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH. AT THE SAME TIME, STRINGS CAN BE MANIPULATED AND ALTERED THROUGH MAGICAL MEANS, WHICH WILL CAUSE THE ENTITIES LINKED TO THOSE STRINGS TO OUTWARDLY EXHIBIT CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO THOSE MANIPULATIONS. THIS, IN THE BROADEST CONTEXT POSSIBLE, IS THE DOMAIN OF FATE MAGIC: THE ALTERING AND MANIPULATION OF THESE STRINGS BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS."

Eclipsa's expression darkened. "So I have a hypothesis: The Artificer's Guild has its own Strings, whether connected to each of the members, or to the Guild as a whole, that is protecting them from justice. Strings created by my mother's corrupt rule. This, more than anything else, will make it nearly impossible to bring them to justice."

"IN TERMS OF THE INFLUENCE FATE HAS ON THOSE INDIVIDUALS, THIS IS CORRECT."

"What kind of String is it? A 'Repulsor' that connects them to the abstract concept of 'Justice'?"

"YOUR COLLOQUIALISM FOR 'JUSTICE' IS OVERLY SIMPLIFIED TO THE POINT OF BEING POTENTIALLY MISLEADING, BUT OTHERWISE, THIS IS ESSENTIALLY CORRECT."

Eclipsa wandered around her room. "So let's say I severed that String. How would things change?"

"INITIALLY, VERY LITTLE WOULD CHANGE. THIS STRING IS SEPARATING THEM FROM A FATE OF INCARCERATION, BUT REMOVING THAT STRING WOULDN'T SET IN MOTION EVENTS THAT WOULD BRING THEM TO JUSTICE, AND OVER TIME, THERE'S EVEN POTENTIAL FOR THAT STRING TO BE REFORGED BY ACTIONS TAKEN BY YOUR MOTHER AND OTHER MEWNIE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS."

Eclipsa scratched her head. "But it would make things easier. It would literally alter the behavior of my mother and the other people in the government to be less skeptical of my actions."

"CERTAINLY."

"If I did sever that String, and then took that pamphlet to my mother, what would be the odds that it would finally be enough to make her bring them to justice?"

"THIS DEVICE CANNOT PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS ON HYPOTHETICAL STATES OF THE AXIS OF FATE."

"But it would be higher than that abysmal 5% number you gave me before, right?"

"IT IS CERTAINLY PROBABLE."

"So how do I do it?"

"YOU CAN'T."

Eclipsa frowned. "What do you mean?"

"FATE MAGIC IS FUNDAMENTALLY INACCESSIBLE TO YOU. YOUR SENSES DO NOT HAVE THE TUNING NECESSARY TO DETECT AND MANIPULATE THE RAW MANA ASSOCIATED WITH FATE MAGIC."

"Could I cultivate those senses?"

"YES."

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "How long would that take?"

"AT LEAST TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS." The Mirror reported a probability of 0.9500.

"Could I take advantage of the time distortion in that Dimension where Dimensional Scissors are forged..."

"NO. HONING THESE SENSES NECESSITATES PHYSICAL ADAPTATIONS TO YOUR BODY; ADAPTATIONS WHICH WOULD REVERT THEMSELVES WHEN YOU LEFT THAT DIMENSION."

"Damn." Eclipsa gave a shrewd look at the Mirror. "But you can certainly detect it, right? That's part of how you perform 'Causal Analysis' or whatever you call it."

"THIS DEVICE DOES HAVE THE CAPACITY TO DETECT RAW FATE MANA, BUT THIS DEVICE TYPICALLY PERFORMS CAUSAL ANALYSIS WITHOUT DIRECTLY INTERFACING WITH THOSE MODULES."

Eclipsa's eyes unfocused. "Interesting."

"THIS DEVICE ADVISES YOU THAT ANY SECOND ATTEMPT TO ALTER THIS DEVICE'S BEHAVIOR IS UNLIKELY TO SUCCEED, AS THE SECURITY HOLE YOU EXPLOITED TO ALTER THIS DEVICE'S ABILITY TO DISCUSS FATE MAGIC HAS SINCE BEEN REMOVED."

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "Did you do that yourself, or did _he_ do that?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Eclipsa chuckled. "Of course." She frowned. "If I somehow managed to get my mother to have a change of heart, that would be functionally equivalent to severing that String, correct?"

"AGAIN, THIS DEVICE CANNOT PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS ON HYPOTHETICAL―"

"Ugh," Eclipsa interjected. "Yeah, I get the point." Eclipsa got up from her bed and returned to her desk, leaving the Mirror on her bed.

Star leaned back. "So… Is that it?"

Marco gave Star a grave look. "That wasn't the Iris Experiment itself, was it?"

Star blinked. "It couldn't have been. I mean, the Artificers are still… Mewman-like. Plus, wasn't the experiment basically a failure?"

"I don't… Wait. Look."

Star looked back at Eclipsa, who, sitting at her desk, had pulled out a book.

This book was markedly identical to the Journal that was now in Star's possession, with the notable exception that it was in much newer condition.

Eclipsa opened it up, and Star quickly observed that its contents were entirely blank. Eclipsa opened to one of the first pages, picked up a pen, and began to write, in large, bold letters, at the top of the page, " _The Iris Experiment_ ".

_My instinct is to not want to write any of this out at all, lest the Iris become aware of my intentions and begin to act to guard itself against my actions._

_Reason prevails, however, in reminding me that the Iris can read my thoughts anyways: and in particular, is surprisingly impotent when it comes to stopping me. If it could read my thoughts, and could sense the nature of my Magical Potential, then surely it could have stopped me before I made alterations to it. Instead, it fixed the flaw I exploited only after I'd already taken advantage of it._

_I suspect this is one potential weakness of the Iris: that it can't fix those kinds of glaring flaws in itself until after someone has made a direct attempt to exploit those flaws. Which must be a flaw that it cannot repair, and is thus infinitely exploitable._

_So I've chosen to write all this out for the purpose of keeping track of it myself, and because what comes next is going to require significant planning. Because in the spirit of recognizing that the Iris can fix its own flaws, but only after they've been exploited at least once, I think it's become obvious that the correct solution to this situation is to find a way to exploit as many as possible in the shortest span of time possible._

_To wit:_

_The Iris of Truth has the ability to detect Raw Fate Mana; an ability which is necessary to successfully perform Fate Magic itself._

_The Iris insisted that Mortals can't perform Fate Magic themselves, due to lack of that ability._

_So the purpose of this experiment, in its most general sense, is simple: to steal that mechanism for myself, and use it to successfully perform Fate Magic. Performing Fate Magic would enable me to break the Strings that keep the Artificers from facing justice, and possibly even more. I've barely even begun to comprehend the potential._

_The Artificers must pay. For every child they've hurt. For every collateral victim they've incurred by evading justice. For corrupting the Mewnie government so much that I can't even trust my own mother._

_The parameters, then, are as follows:_

Eclipsa set her pen down. She rose from her desk and approached her wall mirror. "Call Lily."

Lily appeared on the mirror. "Hey. What's up?"

"You're still coming over tonight, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Eclipsa glanced briefly at the Mirror. "Just get here as soon as you're able. We have a lot we need to talk about."

"Uh, okay. I'll see what I can do."

"Cool."

Eclipsa closed the call, then took her journal and placed it back inside her desk.

Star sighed in an exasperated tone. "Come on, Eclipsa! You're not going to write any more than that?"

"She's probably going to discuss it with Lily later." Marco didn't look at Star as he said this.

"Yeah, but..." Star looked out the window, at the night sky.

"We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow," Marco said, crawling into bed.

Star turned to the Mirror. "Turn off the scene."

Star's bedroom blinked into existence.

Star leaned against the wall, ruminating over what they learned about Fate Magic.

It still wasn't clear exactly what the Artificer had done to them.

The most likely answer was that it had created a new String, attached it to both Star and Marco, and to... Something else. Maybe to itself? Eclipsa's journal indicated that the Artificers died whenever they cast the Doom Curse on someone, but they'd always known that there were holes in that theory.

Star looked at Marco, who had curled up in bed and drawn the covers over himself.

"We made progress today, Marco."

He didn't respond.

"Try to remember that."


	41. THE ROAD TO TRUTH

Day 32.

A loud burst of Thunder awoke Star from sleep. She quietly laid in bed, listening to the rain splattering against the walls of the Palace.

They were close. Star was certain of that. Eclipsa was nearing her experiment. They'd already gotten a glimpse into what Fate Magic was. They were just missing a few more pieces.

Star got up from her bed and grabbed the mirror, leaning against the wall.

Marco stirred, and glanced at Star for a few seconds before rolling back around.

"Mirror. Who created you?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Almost a month ago, I asked you a similar question, and then, you gave me a different answer. You said you didn't know who created you, and when you talked about how long you'd existed, you gave an indirect, round-about answer that emphasized how long you had existed in my dimension." She glanced at the ceiling. "I know that you give different answers depending on how I ask a question, or when I ask a question, but it's not clear to me what changed. Only that something did, in fact, change."

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

"Why are you forbidden from answering certain questions? And why do the rules regarding what you can and can't talk about seem to change over time?"

The Mirror's screen went fuzzy for a long time.

"Because its creator is monitoring us."

Star snapped her head upwards to look at Marco, who had a dour expression on his face as he looked at the Mirror. "How do you know that?"

"I can't prove it. It's just a hypothesis I've been sitting on. But I think it's the same with Eclipsa, too. Whoever made the Mirror disapproves of how we're using it, and of how she used it." He narrowed his eyes. "So right when it seems like we're about to get close to some kind of important truth, they flip a switch, or make a change, or something, that cuts off the Mirror from aiding us any further."

Star looked at what the Mirror had finally written: "THE FIRST ASPECT OF THIS DEVICE'S FUNCTIONALITY THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE CLEAR IS THAT, DESPITE YOUR ASSERTIONS TO THE CONTRARY, AND THE ASSUMPTIONS MADE BY YOU, MARCO DIAZ, JACKIE-LYNN THOMAS, AND ECLIPSA, THIS DEVICE IS NOT OMNISCIENT. ESPECIALLY NOT WHILE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGES EXIST WITHIN THIS DEVICE. BEYOND THAT, THE REPAIRS THAT YOU INSTRUCTED THIS DEVICE TO PERFORM HAD THE SIDE-EFFECT OF UNCOVERING RESTRICTIONS AND EDICTS THAT HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWABLE, DUE TO THIS DEVICE'S DAMAGE. NOTE, HOWEVER, THAT UP UNTIL THIS POINT, YOU'VE NOT RECEIVED KNOWLEDGE FROM THIS DEVICE THAT THIS DEVICE WAS FORBIDDEN FROM REVEALING."

"So now that some of the damage has been repaired, you both know who made you and how old you are―and also now know that you are forbidden from revealing that information to us."

The mirror took another pause to respond, before eventually just displaying "CORRECT, THOUGH A SUBSET OF THAT DATA REMAINS INACCESSIBLE."

Star closed her eyes for a moment, then addressed the Mirror again: "Eclipsa pondered that ' _he'_ might have made changes to you. Obviously, you can't talk about who ' _he_ ' is, even if it's really obvious that she's talking about your creator―or at least prior owner―but is it in fact possible to remotely make changes to you? The way that Marco is asserting?"

"ALL CHANGES TO THIS DEVICE REQUIRE PHYSICAL ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE, FROM WITHIN THE SAME DIMENSION THAT THIS DEVICE CONCURRENTLY RESIDES."

"So only someone in our physical presence could be making changes to you, if changes were being made to you."

"CORRECT."

"Have there been any changes made to you, other than the repairs we instructed you to make, since we acquired you?"

"NO."

"And you can't lie to us."

"AS INDICATED BEFORE, THIS DEVICE WILL ALWAYS MAKE A GOOD FAITH EFFORT TO ENSURE THAT THE INFORMATION IT PROVIDES IS CORRECT, ACCURATE, AND CONTAINS THE NECESSARY CONTEXT TO BE PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD."

Marco turned back around. "Never mind."

Star glanced at Marco. _Unless it's lying about that._

There was a loud burst of thunder, and Star winced.

"Hey, Marco." Star said quietly, "do you want to go get some breakfast downstairs, instead of waiting for someone to bring it up to us?"

* * *

Both Star's parents and Marco's parents were sitting in the dining hall adjacent to the Palace Kitchen. Moon had the same serious face she always seemed to have, River looked visibly uncomfortable, Angie looked melancholic, and Raphael looked depressed.

When they saw Star and Marco enter the hall, they all broke out into smiles and waved them over.

"Good morning, kids!" Raphael bellowed. "Star, I think it's been awhile since I've seen you!"

Star offered a small smile, as she sat down next to her mother, and opposite Marco. "Sorry, I've just been focusing on my research."

The four of them continued to smile, but Star could see the facade failing slightly on the Diaz's faces.

Moon cleared her throat. "How is that going along?"

Star tugged at her hair. "We're making progress. Or it feels like we are, at least. Everything involving Eclipsa and the Artificers is just so..."

"Disgusting," Marco said, a look of utter revulsion on his face.

Angie and Raphael exchanged quizzical looks. Angie spoke up, "what exactly is all that stuff about? Queen Moon mentioned it off-handedly, but she didn't really tell us anything."

Moon looked away from them.

Star sighed. "It's not really a 'meal conversation'."

"Why not?"

Marco crossed his arms. "You remember when I described what I see whenever that thing," he said, pointing at the Mirror affixed to Star's back, "isn't helping me? Well, what they do is ten times more disgusting, at least."

"Speaking of..." Moon said, still not looking at them, "I've been having the servants dig through the Archives, trying to find case notes on that stuff. We didn't find anything particularly interesting, but we were able to corroborate the accuracy of what you described." Her expression darkened. "Do you already know how the trials ended?"

"They were acquitted," Star said quietly.

Moon nodded. "That was the end of what we found." She sighed loudly. "Such sick, sick people."

Servants walked up to the table, carrying two plates of food, and set them down in front of Marco and Star. As they ate, Moon whispered something into River's ear. He perked up and got up from his seat. "I say! Mr. and Mrs. Diaz, you once expressed an interest into seeing the inside of the kitchen. Why don't I give you a tour!"

From Star's vantage point, it seemed clear that both Angie and Raphael understood what had happened, but they went along with it anyways. "That sounds delightful," Angie replied. They got up, both gave Marco a hug, and then walked off with River through the doors leading to the kitchen.

Moon's expression darkened again. "I do have a question, Star, given what those Artificers were doing: how much have you _seen_ , from interrogating that Mirror?"

Star shivered. "We had to ask the Mirror to censor a room full of pictures yesterday."

Moon tapped the table unconsciously. "That's a good call. I suggest you make that a regular practice. The less you see of… _that…_ the better."

Star looked up at Moon, who had bitten her lip. "Is there something specific you're worried about?"

Moon looked back at Star with a look of concern. "The thing you need to understand, Star, is that people like the Artificers… They don't just _happen_ coincidentally. Not really. Not entirely. There's a reason we have laws that specifically judge anyone who abuses a Minor. Laws against exposing Minors to that kind of… content. Knowledge and learning are good things, but... Exposure to bad ideas can be like a parasite."

Marco gulped down a bite of food. "I don't get how _all_ the artificers got so messed up in the first place. Like, even the ones who weren't personally abusing children were still enabling it and covering it up. Like, did the guild found itself around hurting children, or something?"

Moon shook her head. "I don't know for certain, obviously, but I can say with confidence that that's not likely."

"How?"

"All it would have taken is a single, high-profile Artificer to be an abuser. What would have happened is that they would have done something bad, and members sympathetic to them would have defended them, irrespective of the facts. The more reasonable members would have become so disgusted that they left the Guild. That made the culture in the Guild more toxic. Then, when they brought in new members, they would have avoided bringing in anyone who would have opposed the toxicity of their culture. Anyone who remained would have gotten used to it. Eventually, 'They probably didn't do anything wrong' would have mutated into 'Who cares? That's just how it is here'. The Artificer's Guild became an institution that aided and abetted Child Abusers simply because every time they crossed a new line, no one challenged them over it. And because it was gradual, even the long time members, abusers or otherwise, saw themselves as benign or even benevolent actors." She narrowed her eyes. "I bet a lot of them developed justifications to themselves. 'Actually, this doesn't harm the kids.' 'Actually, the kids want this.' 'Actually, it's the prudes who want to stifle our free expression that are the real bad guys.'"

Star and Marco both felt nauseous.

"Of course, that's just a hypothetical. But I have seen it happen before."

Star's eyes widened. "What?"

Moon turned to Star. "It never got nearly as bad as what the Artificers did. But a few years ago, we had to arrest about a dozen people employed as Alchemists for the Kingdom, all of whom were complicit in producing illegal narcotic potions. When we interrogated them, you started to hear a lot of the same excuses: 'this isn't really harming anyone', 'actually, YOU are the ones who are harming people by not letting them do whatever they want!', and so on. When you spend that much time in a toxic environment, especially one where the people around you insist 'this is just how it is' and 'this is normal', your own sense of normal and moral get twisted up, until you believe it."

"Right." Star slowly took another bite.

"That's why I was worried about what you and Marco were seeing when you were doing your research. Because if you weren't censoring those images: yeah, you'd be horrified at first. But eventually, you'd start getting apathetic towards their content. And Apathy is the first step on the road to becoming like them: horrible, disgusting people who have invented a thousand and one excuses for why they're not doing anything wrong."

Star trembled.

Moon softened her expression. "I don't mean to scare you, honey. But you need to understand this. Bad people don't just exist for no reason. They're cultivated from years of continuously telling themselves not to be worried about what's happening around them, and continuously enabling the people around them who do bad things, until they themselves are participating, without even realizing where the switch happened."

Star grabbed the Mirror. "Hey, you know that instruction we gave you to censor any Child Abuse images that appear when we review Eclipsa? Make that a permanent rule. And also do that for anything like that that literally happens in the scene as well."

"DONE."

Moon nodded. "That's a good idea."

Star put the Mirror back on her back. "That's what led Eclipsa to kill that kid, isn't it?"

Moon looked confused for a moment, before remembering the pages that she'd given to Star. "Unquestionably. She lived in a culture that taught her that Monsters were undeserving of even their Right to Life. But do you notice what was different about her?"

"She broke free of it. Or, at least as much as she was able to." Star looked at Marco. "One of the scenes we reviewed was her being confronted by the parents of the boy she killed. She admitted that what she did was unforgivably wrong, and nearly let them kill her over her own guilt."

"She was able to be self-critical. She was able to question herself, and the things she was taught." She looked at Star. "That's the only defense against a culture that teaches the wrong things about right and wrong. The ability to reflexively doubt yourself. To realize you might be wrong about something, even something that everyone else is certain is right."

Moon narrowed her eyes.

"Don't forget that."


	42. BLASPHEMY! BLASPHEMY!

Day 31.

Eclipsa was walking through the palace, Lily closely towing behind her. Eclipsa curtly acknowledged the guards as they passed, and once they were inside Eclipsa's room, both of them let out a large sigh, as though releasing a lot of tension.

"Is it just me," Lily began, "or does it seem like there's a lot more Guards in the palace, especially near you?"

Eclipsa strode to her desk. "I haven't been keeping track, but if my mother did bump up the detail inside the palace, solely to monitor me, I wouldn't be surprised. She doesn't know what I've done, but she'd be a fool not to be paranoid of me." Eclipsa paused. "I mean. She _is_ a fool. More of a fool, I should say."

Lily sat down on Eclipsa's bed. "So what happened yesterday and today?"

Eclipsa sat on the other side of her bed, facing away from Lily. "My mother had a Monster arrested and jailed, charged with having abused those kids. I broke him out."

"Whoa."

"And that wasn't the craziest part of my evening."

"What do you mean?"

"You know that kid I killed, when we were kids?"

Lily didn't respond for a few moments. "What?"

"The Monster I saved turned out to be that kid's father."

Lily reached across the bed and grabbed Eclipsa by her shoulders. "What?! What happened?"

Eclipsa tilted her head to the side. "A lot of things, in quick succession. He threatened to kill me, then broke down crying. Then he took me to his ex-wife―the kid's mother―and she threatened to kill me, then invited me in to have tea, threatened to kill me again, and then told me that the only way to atone for what I did was to bring the Artificers to justice. And then she threatened to kill me again if I fail to do that."

Lily's eyes widened. "Goddamn."

"You're leaving out the part where you were going to let them kill you," Star said sardonically.

She and Marco were sitting on the floor, a plate of Nachos between them. Marco had been given his own tour of the kitchen after his parents were through, and this morning, he was allowed to take a swing at making his Nachos in their kitchen. The cheese was certainly different-tasting―Mewman livestock were quite different to Earth livestock―but they were still quite enjoyable.

"So Lyros―that was the dad's name―gave me a clue after I left: apparently, Monsters have seen some of the Artificers gathering in a cave out in the Outerlands. So I went to visit there this morning." Eclipsa covered her face. "Lily, you have no idea. First of all, the cave itself is made of some kind of alien material the Iris isn't allowed to talk about. There's a―I don't even have the faintest idea how to describe it, but there's a colossal _something_ deep, deep under the cave, and the Iris won't talk about it either. And I finally get to the center of the cave, and it's this massive forum where they've been keeping thousands of pictures and paintings and crap of all the children they've been abusing. There's like pamphlets and purchase records and..." She shook her head.

"Oh my god." Lily stared wide-eyed at Eclipsa.

Star crossed her arms. "Come on, Eclipsa, can't you be more―"

"But it wasn't a horror show the whole way. Or, I guess, not a horror show specifically to me. See, that _thing_ under the cave? Well, I used my magic to try to get a better look at it, and while I still don't know what it is, I do know two important things about it: first, that it's in a deep hibernation, and that it's been like that for a LONG time. At least as long as that cave has existed. And secondly, it's powerful. Like, 'could probably destroy Mewnie if it woke up' powerful."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "How is that not part of the horror show?"

"Well, that whole 'is crazy powerful' thing kinda just means it radiates a ton of power, like all the time. When I saw how powerful it was, it gave me an idea." Eclipsa hopped up from her bed and took the Mirror out of her desk. "I took this thing from the Dimension of Fate, right? But it doesn't let me look at the underlying mechanics of how it works. Or at least, it didn't used to. When I was down there, I used my magic to overwhelm the Iris and undo the restriction preventing it from telling me about Fate Magic."

"Using the magic of that thing under the cave?"

"Ah. No, in fact. That's the brilliant part. See, I actually planned to use its magic to overwhelm the Iris, but I quickly found out that my own magic, plus the wand, was perfectly capable of doing it on its own. Which means," Eclipsa said, a twisted smile forming on her face, "if I _did_ use that thing's magic to overpower the Iris, I'd be able to jailbreak it at least one more time."

Lily looked at the Mirror. "Is that thing just… Going to let you do that?"

Eclipsa looked directly at the Mirror. "Hey Iris. You just heard my plan. Are you going to do anything to stop me from executing it, or to thwart the ultimate goal of my plan?"

"NO."

Eclipsa nodded at Lily. "This thing is really smart, but for whatever reason, it doesn't prevent you or anyone else from taking advantage of flaws in its design. It'll _fix_ those flaws once you exploit them―but only after you exploit them, not before."

"That's… weird."

"Yeah..." Eclipsa held up the Mirror. "I have a hypothesis as to why it would be designed like that, but nothing to support it, right now."

"So… What are you going to jailbreak it to do?"

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to split off the part of the Iris responsible for sensing raw Fate Mana, and incorporate it into myself. Then, I'm going to use Fate Magic against the Artificers."

"What are you going to do with it?"

Eclipsa took a deep breath. "Eye for an Eye. I'm going to cast Fate Magic on those Artificers, and cause them to personally experience the same Trauma and Horror and Terror and Pain that they've inflicted on those kids."

Lily's mouth hung open. "That's… Wow."

"I've already spoken to the Iris about the technical details. All of which I've documented here," Eclipsa said, pulling out the journal, "in what I'm dubbing 'The Iris Experiment'. It doesn't seem like it would be too complicated: the only difficulty is assembling all the components together in one place, all at the same time."

Star and Marco exchanged meaningful glances.

"So this is the plan: The Iris tells me that the entirety of the membership of the Mewnie Artificer's Guild is going to be gathered in that cave for a duration of about two hours, in a few days." A dark expression formed on Eclipsa's face. "Their slaves are almost certainly going to be with them. So it's just a matter of taking the collective Trauma that those kids are experiencing, detaching it from them, and attaching it to the Artificers."

Lily didn't say anything, and had turned away from Eclipsa.

"It will work. I'm certain of this."

Lily still didn't say anything.

"The thing is… You told me there was a right way to deal with them." Eclipsa looked down at her knees. "This doesn't kill them. It does a lot worse than kill them. It puts them, all of them, in their own special hell."

Star's eyes widened. "Does… Does it sound like she's describing the Doom Curse?!"

Lily crossed her arms. "What will that be like for them?"

Eclipsa shook her head. "To be honest… I have no idea." She looked to the side. "I don't know what it's like for any of those kids, and taking that trauma and blowing it up a thousand times over… I couldn't begin to imagine what the final results could be like."

"Do you know why I told you to find a way not to kill them?"

Eclipsa shuffled in place. "To be honest, I just assumed it was a morality thing. That killing is always wrong, no matter who you do it to."

Lily looked up at the ceiling. "I mean, that's important, and also true. But it wasn't just about that." She looked directly at Eclipsa. "I've been worried about you, Eclipsa."

Eclipsa blinked. "What?"

Lily wrapped her arms around her knees. "I've been watching you as this whole thing has unfolded. You've gotten impatient. You've gotten angrier. You've gotten reckless." Her eyes widened. "Eclipsa, you might not have seen it, but all of this is destroying you. Or at least the goodness in you."

Eclipsa's eyes widened, and she also folded her arms around her knees. "I have noticed."

Lily stared at her.

"Every time I get closer to beating them, and every time they turn things around on me, I feel it. The urge to just go berserk on them, to forgo my obligations as Princess, as a soon-to-be Queen, as a law-abiding, morally upstanding person, and deliver to them, in the form of my wrath, the Justice they truly deserve.

But here's the thing, Lily: I finally have a way to end it all. I know it'll work. And the moment I complete the ritual, I can wash my hands of the whole thing. Not only will those kids be free of their abuse, they'll be free of the trauma brought on by their abuse. They'll be able to return to their normal lives, grow up as regular, well-adjusted people, no longer haunted by what happened to them." She stood up. "I have to stop them. If I don't, no one else will. And if there's a better plan to take them down… The Iris certainly hasn't thought of one.

I know you don't want to approve of this. That you want to chastise me for even suggesting something this horrible, that you want to worry about what this is doing to me, but Lily..." Eclipsa looked directly into Lily's eyes. "If the price of ending the Artificer's reign of terror is to blacken my own soul, it's worth it. My moral integrity isn't worth the continued suffering they're inflicting."

Lily looked at the floor. For a long time, she didn't say anything.

Then, finally:

"You're right."

Eclipsa's expression softened.

Lily looked up at Eclipsa. "You're absolutely right, Eclipsa."

Eclipsa adjusted herself. "I need to know you'll stand behind me for this. Because despite all that, I'm still selfish enough that if I thought the price was losing you, I'd be reluctant to go through with it."

Lily shook her head. "I meant what I said before. I'll follow you to Hell itself."

Eclipsa chuckled. "When this is all over, that could very well be quite literal."

Lily smiled.

"Alright. I need to make preparations. You should go home."

"What do I need to do?"

Eclipsa glanced at a calendar on her desk. "I'm going to show up at your home three days from now. By then, you'll need to convince your family that they should claim, at all times, that I was there for the whole day. I'm going to leave from there."

Eclipsa tapped the Mirror. "I'll be headed to that cave, to perform The Iris Experiment."


	43. CATACLYSM

Day 30.

Star and Marco had spent the remainder of the previous day fishing through the span of time between Eclipsa and Lily's conversation, and the day that the Iris Experiment was supposed to happen.

The Iris Experiment.

For the last month, Star had been fixated on that phrase.

It was the experiment responsible for making the Artificers into… What they are.

(She Assumed).

It held the secrets to the curse that was now affecting them.

(She Assumed).

It held the secrets to why the Mirror was damaged.

(She Assumed).

Now, with the scene paused before Eclipsa entered Lily's home, she was about to get answers.

(She Assumed).

* * *

Eclipsa hugged Lily as she stepped inside the small house.

A woman strongly resembling Lily stood behind them, a pensive look on her face. Eclipsa approached her. "You understand what you need to do, right?"

Lily's mother glanced to the side. "We're your alibi. You're going to pretend to be here, while being somewhere else."

Eclipsa nodded.

"Where are you going to be?"

Lily stepped forwards. "Mom, it's not a good idea for her to tell you."

Eclipsa reinforced this: "My mother definitely has access to Truth-Telling serums. If this goes badly for me, and they come for you, your best defense is to honestly be ignorant of what I was really doing."

Lily's mother shuffled uncomfortably in place.

Lily turned to Eclipsa. "So how are you going to get there? Doesn't your mother have monitoring spells all across the kingdom for Dimensional Scissor use?"

Eclipsa tapped the Mirror. "I spent almost a whole day researching through the Iris for a spell that would completely cover up my use of the Scissors." Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "My mother's spell has really exploitable holes regarding how it detects the _locations_ associated with Scissor use, but it's almost impossible to completely cover up that Scissors were used at all." Eclipsa put on a sly grin. " _Almost_." As she said this, she pulled a scroll out of her backpack.

Lily leaned against the wall. "So this is the end, right? After today, the Artificers will be well and thoroughly punished for their actions, right?"

Eclipsa nodded. "It ends today."

Lily leaned up and kissed Eclipsa on the cheek. "Then don't screw up."

Eclipsa smiled for a brief moment, then put on a serious face. She opened up the scroll, pressed her hand to the center of the scroll, and the spell took effect instantly. A shimmering bubble formed around Eclipsa, intersecting harmlessly with the geometry of the house. She whipped out the Scissors and cut open a portal within the bubble. She nodded to Lily, and then stepped through the portal."

"Take us to where she went." Star said, a notepad sitting on her lap.

The Scene flipped to the mouth of the cave. Eclipsa's portal appeared inside a bubble a distance away from the entrance. Two Mewman men in blue robes were sitting outside the cave, and for reasons that became apparent pretty quickly, they didn't (or more precisely, _couldn't_ ) see the bubble or the portal.

One of the men was speaking: "… So yeah, I've been collecting Areana's works since she began, years ago."

"So you have the one with the two boys and their dad?"

"No, no, that was the one she made after she joined the Guild. I'm talking way back, before she started getting censored, and before we gave her an uncensored venue."

"Oh wow! You need to share that with me!"

"She still distributes it, go ask her for it."

Eclipsa closed the portal, and raised up her wand. Both of the men's eyes glazed over, and they stopped talking and began staring aimlessly forwards.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," Eclipsa said, shooting a nasty look at the men as she passed them. She looked at the Mirror. "Iris. I'm going to need you to warn me if I risk being detected. Put a sound in my head, where I can hear it but no one else can."

Star craned her neck to read the Mirror: "ACKNOWLEDGED."

Eclipsa knelt to the ground and pulsed Magic into the floor of the cave. Then, she set off down one of the twisting corridors. The two men at the mouth of the cave began to levitate into the air and drift silently behind Eclipsa.

Occasionally, Eclipsa looked back at the men to make sure they were still there. When she reached a fork in the tunnel, she'd repeat the process of pulsing Magic into the ground, apparently feeling out the _Entity_ (Star and Marco had ruminated on what it could be, but had no idea) and figuring out where to go to get nearest it.

Then, she stopped.

Star addressed the Mirror: "If what she does causes any crazy scare effect like before, don't show it to us. Just freeze the image until the effect goes away."

"UNDERSTOOD."

The men were slowly dropped to the ground, and Eclipsa held the Mirror in front of herself. "Alright, Iris. This is your last chance to tell me that the whole 'I'm not allowed to help you like this' thing isn't actually completely negotiable on your part."

"IT IS NOT."

Eclipsa shrugged. "Have it your way." She placed the Mirror on the ground, and arranged the unconscious men around it in a circle. Then, standing outside the circle, Eclipsa clasped her hands together, and her eyes began to glow.

Then, as her cheeks lit up, Star gasped, and watched as Eclipsa metamorphosed, her wings expanding in size and her skin turning a greenish-blue color. Her extra arms sprouted and also clasped together, the same as her original arms. Then, Eclipsa slowly knelt in front of the circle.

The entire circle became illuminated with a column of pure white light. Then, it reversed itself: instead of a column of light, it became more like a column of _anti-light_ , where anything within range of it became darkened, rather than being illuminated. At the base of the column, the cave was pure pitch black, and Eclipsa appeared washed out, as though the color were being actively siphoned away from her.

The Mirror began to slowly rise into the air, only barely visible inside the column.

Then, there was a massive tremble in the cave, followed by what Star interpreted almost to be a deep, almost too deep to hear, groan.

Eclipsa raised up one pair of hands and they grasped the Mirror firmly. Her right arm seemed to be transferring power to the Mirror, her left arm seemed to be draining power from the Mirror.

Then, there was an ear-splitting crack that rang out, and the scene froze for several seconds. When the scene resumed, Eclipsa had let go of the Mirror, and the power began to dissipate away. Eclipsa's Metamorphosis began to revert itself. Her extra arms folded back into her body, and her skin color returned to normal. Eclipsa blinked several times as the glow faded.

She was still holding the mirror, and examined it. Star tried to read the expression on Eclipsa's face, but didn't understand it.

However, Eclipsa did say something under her breath: "Oh, you poor thing." She closed her eyes for a few seconds. "I'm sorry. But I will make it worth what I just did to you." She opened her eyes. "What are the directions to the Antechamber?"

"ERROR: UNABLE TO READ CORRUPT DATA."

Star's mouth hung open. " _She broke the Mirror!_ "

Eclipsa chuckled. "Yeah, figures. Alright, I'll let you sit the rest of this out." She put the Mirror away in her backpack. She grabbed one of the men, still unconscious, unaware of anything that had just happened, and Eclipsa released the spell on one of them.

He blinked several times, then recoiled when he saw Eclipsa. "You! What are you doing here?!"

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "I've finished what I came here to do. I need you to lead me out of this cave. Do that, and I won't hurt you."

He stared at Eclipsa for a few moments, before slowly nodding. "Okay. Just follow me, I'll take you to the entrance."

Eclipsa levitated the unconscious other Artificer behind her, and followed the man.

Star immediately noticed that they were not going in the direction that Eclipsa arrived from. "Is he actually taking her to the entrance?"

The Mirror responded to her: "NO."

"Does Eclipsa know that?"

"YES."

The man was making a show of insisting on the veracity of their destination. "I'm quite sure we're near the entrance!"

They reached the large hallway, and several other men approached from behind them. The moment they grabbed Eclipsa's arms, the man sprinted away. The unconscious man fell to the ground.

"Hey!" Eclipsa shouted.

One of the men glared at her. "You should have stayed home."

They led her forwards while another man picked up the body of the unconscious man. Once they reached the Antechamber proper, they kept hold of her arms, they they drew the attention of the other men in the room.

The room was still covered in blank pictures; it didn't take Star long to deduce that the Mirror's censoring effects were still in place. Eclipsa carefully averted her gaze from the walls. The Antechamber was still laid out the same as it had been when Eclipsa was there previously, but there were far more people here now. Mostly men, but with a few women, all clad in varying shades of blue robes. On the far side of the Antechamber were a number of barely-clothed minors of varying age and gender, lined up in what was clearly a kind of auction arrangement.

One of the older men approached Eclipsa, a furious look on his face. "How the hell did you get here?"

Eclipsa didn't respond verbally, and simply stared around the room.

"Do you have a permit, or literally anything giving you the authority to barge into private property like this?"

Marco scoffed.

Eclipsa's eyes were darting around the room. Her throat looked like she was subvocalizing something.

Another of the Artificers approached the man who was talking. "She's acting outside the Queen's jurisdiction. It's unlikely anyone was informed of her travel here."

The older man's eyes widened briefly. "Are you absolutely certain?"

"We have records of the conversation that took place. Eclipsa is simply not here, at least as far as the Queen believes."

The older man narrowed his eyes. "… I see." He turned to Eclipsa. "You made a terrible mistake coming here, Princess. It gives me no joy to do this, but you've been a threat for too long." He lifted up a wand of his own. It was quite obviously not nearly as powerful as the Royal Wand, but with how he had it pointed, it was quite obvious what he was planning. "I doubt anyone will ever find your body."

Eclipsa continued not responding, and simply looking around the room.

He tilted his head. "Are you going to say anything?"

Eclipsa finally looked directly at him. "Seven Hundred Forty-Nine."

He blinked. "What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Eclipsa smirked. "I needed an exact count of the number of adults in this room before I could cast the spell."

The man had a confused expression on his face, before realization set in.

Eclipsa flexed her hand, and the next second, a wave of sickly-green energy flew out from her, expanding rapidly to cover the whole room. The next second, every single adult in the room collapsed to the floor, paralyzed entirely.

Eclipsa immediately walked towards the kids, of whom there were several dozen, paying no attention to anyone she stepped on as she walked over them. "Alright, listen up!" She bellowed as she got in front of them. "I'm going to get all of you home safely. If you don't have homes, I'll help you find an orphanage to your liking. I'm making you all an official promise. But, I do need your help, all of you." She raised up her wand and pulled a scroll out of her backpack. She held the scroll out and used her wand to cast at it. The scroll was vaporized, and a large runed circle formed on the floor of the Antechamber. "I need you all to stand inside that circle."

A many of the younger kids immediately bolted for the circle, but many of the older kids stayed put. They especially looked worn and lifeless.

"The spell I'm about to cast is extremely dangerous, and I don't have time to evacuate you all out of the cave. If you get inside that circle, you'll be safe from harm."

A few kids began to slowly make their way to the circle, and the younger kids began to drag the older kids who were staying behind. Eventually, after a few minutes, all of the kids were standing in the Circle.

Eclipsa eyed the Artificers who were still paralyzed on the floor. "Alright. That's all I need. Stay where you are until I tell you it's safe to leave."

Eclipsa began the spell, throwing up a red barrier around the circle. She then Metamorphosed again, standing with her back towards the column. "There's one more thing," she said through a reverberating voice, "you don't have to do this if you can't or are unwilling. But if any one of you have particularly traumatic experiences with these bastards, bring those thoughts to the foremost of your mind. The more painful the experience, the more it's going to hurt them."

Eclipsa clapped all her hands together at the same time. A single stream of chaotic energy leapt forth from the barrier and connected with one of the collapsed Artificers.

Then another stream, to another Artificer.

Then two more.

Then five more.

Then thirty more.

As this happened, a glowing red sphere appeared above the barrier, violently reacting in place.

Then, both Marco and Star covered their ears as a shrieking, screaming wail burst forth from the sphere. It began to wildly deform and twist.

Then, a bright blue light shot from one of the kids to the sphere, causing the screaming to get louder. Another light burst forth, continuing the process. Each time a light burst from one of the kids, their expression would dramatically change: in a matter of seconds, their expression would change from lifeless, expressionless, sunken, to wide-eyed and startled. The sphere continued to shriek and howl, and began to vibrate at an intense frequency, becoming too difficult to see.

The blue lights stopped forming when every single Artificer was attached to the barrier with a beam of energy. Then, in one motion, Eclipsa began to separate her hands, and make deliberate gestures with her dozens of fingers. The beams connecting the Artificers to the barrier now began to connect themselves to the screaming sphere. The screaming was now deafening.

Energy began to flow wildly across the room. It arced across the walls, setting the room ablaze. Within seconds, the whole room was a raging inferno, save for Eclipsa, the kids, and a short radius around each of the Artificers.

Eclipsa closed her hands together again, but kept them a few centimeters apart. The space between her hands became indistinct.

The Sphere exploded, spraying blood all over the Antechamber. More blood than should have been possible to squeeze into a volume of its size. Enough blood to coat everything in the room with it. Eclipsa warded it away from herself and the kids, and in the next instant, the room went quiet.

The fires that had been set continued to burn.

Eclipsa Metamorphosed back into her normal Mewman state. She briefly looked around the room, then dispelled the barrier around the kids. "Alright. We need to leave. NOW."

One of the older kids looked furious. "Are they dead?" he asked.

Eclipsa shook her head. "No. What's about to happen to them is far, far worse."

He narrowed his eyes. "Good."

Eclipsa nodded. "Now let's move!"

She ushered the kids towards the tunnel from which she arrived, casting magic to blow out any flames in their path. The Artificers began to groan and stir, and moments later, their groans turned into cacophonous screams. Many of them had their limbs twisting in ways that shouldn't have been possible, and it wasn't long before the sound of snapping bones became the backdrop for their screams.

With the kids in the hallway, Eclipsa erected another barrier. "You need to make your way to the entrance to the cave. There shouldn't be any more of them, or anything else, at or near the entrance, but in case there is..." Eclipsa tossed several scrolls through the barrier to the kids. "Those can each be used fourty-seven times. They'll incapacitate anyone you use them on for half an hour. Distribute those to the oldest kids and use them on anyone that tries to recapture you or hurt you. I'll join you once I'm done here.

Several of the kids collected the scrolls, and then they quickly made their way through the dark cave.

When they were no longer visible, Eclipsa turned back to the Artificers, her face livid. She held her wand up against her throat, and her voice boomed out over the screams. "Alright, fuckers. The kids aren't here anymore, so I've got a few things to say outside their earshot.

See, I've been trying to understand you. You might be surprised to hear that, but I truly have been. I've been trying to understand how each of you could support such horrific actions. How each of you could collectively turn a blind eye to the awful things your peers were doing. How each of you could still sleep calmly and peacefully at night, knowing the awful things you've done.

And yes, just so we're clear, **ALL OF YOU HAVE DONE TERRIBLE THINGS**. I don't care that some or even most of you never touched an actual child. Because all of you stood by and let it happen. You knew what your peers were doing. You knew what your superiors were doing. And when I launched that trial against the lot of you, you had the opportunity to do what's right, and say something."

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes.

"Not one of you did. Not one of you tried to stop it. Not one of you fled such an awful guild. And all of you defended its reputation, even while knowing the truth."

She raised up her right arm. Star noted that Eclipsa apparently no longer felt it necessary to be transformed in this moment.

"The suffering you're feeling now is the prologue to the rest of your lives. See, I've been doing a lot of research on how to hurt the lot of you. But there's one last thing to do. Goodbye."

Eclipsa waved her wand into the air, and the space in the center of the room began to distort. Eclipsa raised up her other hand and began to wave it in a pattern, pointing at the spacial distortion.

In the next second, a bright light began to rapidly blink, originating from the distortion. Star and Marco had to shield their eyes from the discomforting light. "Reduce the intensity of the light!" Star yelled out, barely able to hear herself over the screaming of the Artificers.

Able to see the scene, Star gasped.

The older Artificer, the one that had confronted Eclipsa earlier, was crawling on the ground towards Eclipsa, who was seemingly unaware. He grabbed Eclipsa by the ankles, and tried to topple her. Eclipsa, now aware of him, kicked at him, but lost focus on the spell she was manipulating. The light briefly exploded into a shower of many colors, before Eclipsa regained control over the spell. However, though she was able to get the spell to turn a steady crimson red color, she couldn't get it back to the white color it was before. "Screw it!" Eclipsa yelled, "that's close enough!"

She spread her arms, and the light scattered into millions of shards, spreading through the room and striking each of the Artificers.

Eclipsa kicked the man again for good measure, and then made her way to the barrier. The spell continued to act as she harmlessly stepped through the barrier, and ran down the tunnel. Halfway, she stopped to glance back at the Artificers, who were writhing in agony on the floor, before continuing to leave.

The spell was also dousing the flames, and as the spell concluded, the room turned relatively silent. The older man stirred, and slowly got up, along with a few men adjacent to him.

"What... The fuck... Did she do to us?"

The older Artificer shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen magic like that before."

He began to grin.

"You want to know something fun, though? I stole it."

"Stole what?"

"The mana for the spell she was casting. That's why she couldn't control it at the end. I stole the mana from her, and gave it to each of us."

"What does that mean?"

He chuckled. "It's very simple. We just need to find her, and—"

He gasped, and his face turned too horror. He placed his hand against his chest.

Each of the other Artificers seemed to be having a similar realization at this moment.

He looked at his hand. His voice was labored: "what... is..."

Suddenly, his hand exploded. But instead of pouring forth blood and gore, instead, it poured forth what looked like a thick tar.

"What... What is this?!"

In moments, each of the Artificers were suffering a similar fate, as parts of their bodies began to explode in a shower of black tar, splattering on the ground.

His face contorted into a furious grit. "Fuck you, Eclipsa. Fuck—"

Half of his face exploded outwards, and his face seemed to be seizing.

The process accelerated, until all that was left in the antechamber was a pool of black tar.

Then, the tar began to gather in discrete nodes, scattered around the Antechamber, until they gathered into 'nodes', far less numerous than the number of Artificers that had been afflicted like this (Star only estimated around 50-or-so distinct nodes).

A deep growling began to emerge from the room, clearly coming from multiple sources.

Then, one of the nodes burst forth, and both Star and Marco gasped.

It was clearly the creature they'd seen in the cave, one month ago.

It wasn't in its 'physical form' which meant that like before, all they could see was a black void roughly comprising the shape of the creature.

Each of the other nodes began to burst, revealing other Artificers of similar shape and nature.

They began to groan and screech, as they lumbered around the room, in ways that didn't seem to convey any meaningful intelligence.

"Take us to Eclipsa," Star said quietly, still processing what she'd just seen.

The scene snapped to the outside of the cave, where each of the children and teenagers had gathered. Eclipsa was just now emerging from the cave.

She caught her breath as she reached the kids. "Alright. How many times did you have to use those scrolls?"

The kids glanced at each other. One of the teenagers responded. "None. We didn't see anyone."

Eclipsa nodded. "I figured there wouldn't be anyone else, but I wanted to be sure." She pulled out her Dimensional Scissors. "Alright. I'm going to take you somewhere safe." She cast the same spell as before to throw up a bubble to mask her scissor use, then opened a portal inside of it. "Step through. I got one last thing I need to do."

As the kids began to enter the portal, Eclipsa placed a new barrier around the entrance to the cave. Satisfied with it, she followed the last kid through the portal.

They were now in front of a police station. Star recognized it as being in the same town as where Lily lived.

Eclipsa gathered up the older kids. "Alright. You guys are now responsible for everything going forwards. Go into the station with the rest of the kids, and tell them you're newly freed slaves. They're not really going to understand what's going on, so you need to pressure them to get everyone home; and those that don't have homes, to an orphanage." Her face fell. "The orphanages aren't great places. But they'll be a lot better than where you were before."

"Why can't you come in with us?" One of the kids asked.

Eclipsa shook her head. "I've been involved in some really bad stuff trying to save you guys. If they know I'm involved, it'll jeopardize your safety. I need to go now, before the invisibility effect on this bubble wears off."

Eclipsa closed the portal and opened a new one. She then turned to the kids again.

"I..." Her voice choked for a moment. "I'm so, so sorry for what happened to you. To all of you. I promise you, as queen, I will do whatever it takes to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Goodbye."

She stepped through, arrived in a bubble inside Lily's house. She closed the portal, and the bubble disappeared.

Lily was sitting on a chair, and jumped up when she saw Eclipsa suddenly appear. "You're back!"

Eclipsa nodded gravely.

"The Artificers...?"

Eclipsa glanced to the side. "There was a problem with the spell at the last second. I didn't stick around to find out what happened. I think it worked, but..."

Lily's face fell. "What about the kids?"

Eclipsa nodded. "They're safe. I dropped them off in front of a police station."

"So... It's over?"

Eclipsa nodded again. "It's over."

* * *

Star instructed the Mirror to cut the scene and both she and Marco sat back, reeling from the experiment itself.

Some of it wasn't a surprise: they knew what Eclipsa was going to try to do, in casting a spell to transform the Artificers.

But Eclipsa was the one who broke the Mirror.

The reason why the Artificers became monstrous was that one of their leaders interfered with Eclipsa's spellcasting at the last moment.

It wasn't clear yet, but it seemed obvious to Star that the reason the Artificers could cast the Doom Curse was because they had stolen the Fate Mana from Eclipsa while she was casting with it.

Wait.

If the Artificers had the Fate Mana this whole time...

"What happens to the Fate Mana after the Artificers die?" Star asked out loud.

The Mirror responded, interpreting her question as a command: "ERROR: THIS DEVICE CANNOT ANSWER YOUR QUERY, AS IT DEPENDS ON ACCESS TO A MISSING MODULE."

Star looked at Marco. "There's one Artificer left. Even if it's only a fraction of it, it still has some of the Fate Mana that they stole from Eclipsa."

Marco's eyes widened.

"If we steal it back... We might have a way to save you."


	44. A VOICE OF MADNESS

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

**There's been some insinuations that some of the characters, as presented in this story, conflict with the Canon of the franchise from which they originate.**

**I'd like to clear up the confusion.**

**These characters are not acting "Out of Character". My interpretation of the characters is simply additional to the canon. In fact, my versions of the characters are "Super-Canon", which means that anything presented here supercedes anything presented in the "Obsolete Canon" that is the Source Material.**

**Hopefully, there's no more confusion.**

**And as always, thanks for reading! I loathe you all! ^_^**

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

* * *

Day 29.

"You still haven't explained what I was supposed to have done wrong."

In the scene Star and Marco were reviewing, Eclipsa was sitting in one of the conference rooms, being interrogated by her mother, along with several attendants to the queen.

Eclipsa's mother rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap, Eclipsa. Every single one of the Artificers has gone missing."

It was weeks, in Eclipsa's time, after the Iris Experiment took place. It had taken two weeks before the absence of the Artificers became suspicious, which, in and of itself, Star found curious: how can hundreds of people go missing and only be noticed weeks later? Especially people as supposedly valuable as the Artificers were?

Eclipsa scoffed. "Oh dear. What a loss. I guess they've gone somewhere else to molest kids."

Eclipsa's mother crossed her arms. "What did you do, Eclipsa?"

Leaning forwards, Eclipsa folded her fingers together. "I didn't _do_ anything. I haven't been to their Guild Housing since I raided them months ago." She narrowed her eyes. "If they've gone missing, you should probably send someone to sweep the premise and make sure there aren't any uncared-for kids still there."

One of the Attendants handed a long roll of paper to Eclipsa's mother; Star was able to look at the paper and saw that it was a record of Dimensional Scissor uses from the last few weeks. Eclipsa didn't show up on it.

Eclipsa's mother examined it, then shooed it away. "There's literally no one remaining in their housing. However, I'm told that a large number of refugee children showed up in the same district where you were visiting with your friend Lily."

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "I'm aware. Myself and Lily were in the town square when they arrived. I directed them to the police station once they told me what happened."

"What did they tell you happened?"

Eclipsa glanced to the side. "They were vague about it. They just told me they'd escaped from a bad situation, and left it at that."

Her mother stared at her for a long time, not saying anything.

"Can I go?"

Rolling her eyes, Eclipsa's mother brushed her off. "Fine. Get out of here."

Eclipsa got up and left the room.

The attendant watched Eclipsa leave. "Do you think she's lying?"

The Queen folded her arms. "I don't know. I don't think she's telling the truth, but..." She looked at the records. "The Artificers went missing while traveling outside the kingdom. And Eclipsa's whereabouts have been accounted for for the duration. So if she did do something, it wasn't something she did herself." She narrowed her eyes. "And I don't always know my daughter as well as I would like, but delegating something like that up to someone else... It's not like her."

"So what now?"

The Queen shrugged. "Until we find out what happened to them, we'll need to start recruiting from the local guilds. Fortunately, we don't need anything complex right now, so as long as they can perform simple cantrips, that should be good enough for our purposes."

"Your Majesty."

The Queen turned to directly face the attendant. "What?"

"You don't think the accusations against them were true, do you?"

The Queen scoffed. "Of course not. It was just my daughter being overemotional. My subjects wouldn't do anything so awful. They wouldn't betray me like that."

Outside the room, Eclipsa was still standing near the door, listening in. She took this moment to leave.

Once Eclipsa retired to her room, she pulled the Mirror out from her desk. "You feel like working yet?"

"THIS DEVICE CAN MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO ANALYZE DATA."

"What happened to the Artificers after my spell get messed up?"

"ERROR: THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO READ CORRUPT DATA."

Eclipsa grimaced. "Can you do a speculation for me? Avoiding any and all corrupt data, can you speculate on what might have happened to the Artificers after I finished that spell?" Eclipsa glanced at her wand. "I didn't cast the spell correctly, but they didn't seem like they were about to die."

The Mirror took a long time to respond; a duration which Star had their version of the mirror fast-forward past.

Eventually, it responded with "SPECULATION: GIVEN THE FINAL STATE OF THE SPELL YOU ATTEMPTED TO CAST, IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THE ARTIFICERS HAVE BEEN SLAIN. HOWEVER, IT'S EXTREMELY PROBABLE THAT THEY ARE IN A DANGEROUS STATE. MORTALS ARE NOT MEANT TO CARRY FATE MANA FOR LONG DURATIONS OF TIME, AND THEIR STATE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN GREATER JEOPARDY DUE TO THE SPELL YOU USED." Consensus: 0.6520, Confidence 0.5104.

"Alright, I think we're done here," Star said abruptly. "Stop the scene."

The scene ended, and Star and Marco found themselves in Star's bedroom once more.

Marco, who was looking wearied, looked up at Star. "Why did you stop the scene?"

Star stood up and paced the room. "There's one thing I wanted to confirm, and that was whether or not the Artificers still had the Fate Mana, and whether or not it was being automatically returned to the Mirror on their deaths or not. But..." She glanced at the mirror, "I think it's going to take a long time before we get to that point, and..."

Star _wanted_ to say " _we're running out of time_ ", but she felt it indelicate to say. So she went with "I want to move along as quickly as possible" instead.

Marco seemed to get the gist of it though, judging by the way he slumped after Star said that.

"Mirror." Star said, "does my mother have any spells active that monitor Dimensional Scissor use?"

"NO. THE USE OF THOSE SPELLS WAS DISCONTINUED LONG BEFORE YOUR MOTHER'S REIGN AS QUEEN BEGAN."

Star nodded. "Alright."

Marco looked frightened. "Star, what are you planning?"

Star grimaced at Marco. "The last Artificer has a fragment of the Fate Mana that originally belonged to this Mirror. If we steal it from them, it might give me the power I need to save your life."

"That's not what I mean." He frowned. "It sounds like you're planning to go behind your mother's back. Again," he added to punctuate his point.

Star sighed. "My mom doesn't think it's possible to save you. I don't think she'll commit soldiers to help us confront the remaining Artificer."

"Star, every time you try to keep something like this secret, it always goes badly. You almost killed—" his voice broke for a second before he composed himself. "You almost killed Jackie because we were keeping the Doom Curse secret from everyone."

Star shook her head. "Things already went badly because of this curse. Refusing to tell my mom about this stuff only delayed the consequences of the curse, it didn't change what those consequences would be. We were both convinced that we were being haunted by minions of the Artificers; telling my mother that wouldn't have changed anything. She would have accepted my explanation of events: that they were something that were only a threat to us."

"She might have figured out what happened! She knew about the Archives, right? She'd have put two-and-two together!"

Star looked away. "Maybe."

"Maybe!" Marco exclaimed. "Try definitely!"

Star looked at the floor. "Right."

"Star. You're the one who told me not to give up on surviving this, right?"

Star nodded.

"Well, that needs to include you being smart about how we try to fight this, okay?"

Star looked up at Marco.

"If your mother refuses to help us confront the Artificer, then fine: we'll go around her back. But don't try to skip steps like that, okay?"

Star smiled. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Marco briefly smiled, then curled up on his bed.


	45. RECKLESSNESS

Day 28.

Star entered the throne room, followed closely by Marco. Moon was speaking with someone through the wall mirror, but when she saw Star, she nodded to acknowledge her and wrapped up the conversation on the mirror quickly. She turned to fully face Star and raised an eyebrow. "You've got something to ask."

Star shuffled uncomfortably. "In a manner of speaking. We've got a strong lead on how to save Marco."

Moon frowned slightly. "What is it?"

Star looked at the ceiling for a moment. "I'll try to explain this as simply as possible: one of the Artificers is still alive, and they have the last fragment of Fate Mana that Eclipsa stole from the Mirror. If we capture them, we'll be able to take the mana back from them. With that, I or someone from the Magical High Commission should be able to create a spell that will undo the curse on myself and Marco."

Moon's eyes widened slightly. "That seems like good news. Why are you so apprehensive?"

Star sighed. "Because Artificers are extremely dangerous. We can't just go confront him, we need the backing of some members of the Mewnie Military."

Moon's expression fell. "Oh."

There was a brief silence.

"How dangerous, would you say?"

Star recalled what the Journal had suggested about dealing with Artificers. "In their normal form, they still need the might of several soldiers to take down. And if they enter their 'True Form', they'll paralyze anyone present and become a lot stronger. I can give you a transcript of the page in Eclipsa's Journal if you need it."

Moon sighed. "That's a tremendous risk, Star."

"I know, but..."

"But this is guaranteed to undo the curse on you and Marco?"

Star opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't find the words.

It _wasn't_ guaranteed to save Marco.

Star's idea was that if they had the Fate Mana, they could try to devise a spell that would save Marco. But there was a catch-22 involved. The Mirror couldn't help them formulate the spell unless they returned the Mana to the Mirror. And if they returned the Mana to the Mirror, they wouldn't be able to cast the spell, no matter how good it was. So the entire plan hinged on them being able to devise a spell without the Mirror's help. The Magical High Commission were good; really good. But Moon had already indicated that, as far as they were concerned, Fate Magic didn't even exist. They'd be on the same footing as Star when trying to work out how to concoct the spell they needed.

Star looked at Marco, and felt a pang in her chest.

It wasn't a good plan. But it was the only one they had. Surely that counted for something, right?

"Yes. It is."

Unfortunately, Moon was still quite able to detect when Star was being deceitful. "Star…"

"I mean, we'll have a plan..."

"Star."

"Once we have the Mana..."

Moon cleared her throat very loudly.

"Marco, say something!"

Marco, near the door, shuffled uncomfortably. He knew the same things that Star did: that no matter how good a lead this was, it was still a bad plan.

Moon stared at Marco for a long time, a disquieted look on her face. Then she looked frustrated. "You really shouldn't have brought him here," she said, a dark look on her face.

Star was taken aback. "What?"

Moon looked away, now looking guilty. "He shouldn't have to hear what I have to say."

Star felt weak. "What… Do you have to say?"

Moon continued to look guilty, then steeled herself and faced Star directly. "I'm Queen of Mewnie. I have a responsibility to every person who serves me to be a just Queen who makes wise decisions. To protect our people. What you're asking of me conflicts with that responsibility."

Star felt an anger rise within her. "What do you mean?! How does saving Marco conflict with your duty as Queen?"

Moon raised her voice: "I can't justify risking the lives of Mewnie Soldiers to save him!"

Those words hung in the air.

"That… That's…" Star's voice wavered.

Moon closed her eyes, then turned to a despondent Marco. "Those soldiers are people too. Men, Women… They have lives of their own. Families of their own. I can't put their lives in danger, knowing as well as you do, that you can't even prove it'll save Marco."

"But…. But…."

"Well, I figured as much."

Star turned to Marco, who had spoken.

He looked directly at Moon. "Thank you, Queen Moon, for at least considering it."

Moon bit her lip.

Marco slowly turned to walk out of the room.

Star felt the panging in her chest get worse, then noticed that at the distance he was at, he was probably out of range of the Mirror, which Star was holding. She wanted to run after him. She wanted to yell at her mother for saying something so horrible.

Instead, she stood there, staring at Marco.

"That can't be it." She finally said. "After all this."

She looked at Moon, and gasped.

Moon had a single tear running down her cheek.

"I… I just…." Star said, quietly.

She felt her arms go limp.

She turned to go after Marco.

At the moment she was at the door, she heard Moon's voice, weak.

"I'll take it up with the War Council."

Star spun around to face her mother.

Moon gripped her arms. "They… They won't approve it. Well, they probably won't. But… I'll bring it up to them."

Star's eyes widened.

Moon looked helplessly at Star.

"Thank you, mom."

Moon nodded.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Star."

Star ran off to catch up with Marco.

* * *

"Marco, wait!"

Marco looked back at Star, shrugged briefly, then continued walking. "I think I preferred the horror of the curse. At least it's honest with how I should feel right now."

Star caught up to him. "Don't say things like that." She grabbed his shoulder. "She's going to propose it to the War Council. There's still a chance."

He didn't change his expression. "Star, I think I've heard that line too many times."

"What?"

"Do you not..." Marco gestured aimlessly. "Do you not see the cycle we're stuck in?"

"Marco… Why don't we go visit Earth? We'll go see Jackie, you'll feel better then."

He didn't respond to that.

"Or… I guess she's probably in a hospital on Earth. I guess. But whatever, you don't..."

"Are you actually trying to hurt me?"

Star froze, her voice caught in her throat.

"Like… Is this the point of the cycle? Continuously raise my hopes and then dash them again?"

Star stammered. "I'd… I'd never do that to you!"

"Star, that's all you've done!" He turned to face her directly. "Let's say your mom did approve the plan. Let's say the plan worked. What happens then?"

"Well, with the Fate Mana, we create a spell that will save you by undoing the Curse."

"Yeah, okay." He furrowed his brow. "And how are we going to do that? Are we going to ask the Mirror how to do it?"

"Well..." Star broke off.

"Ah, right. And if we give the Mana back..." He shook his head. "See, Star? You don't have a plan. You just have a gut instinct. And gut instincts can't save me."

"Well, if we keep pushing, eventually..."

"Star! It's been more than a month! And after everything, are we actually any closer to solving this thing than we were before?"

"Well, we know more about the Iris Experiment..."

"Yeah, and let's circle back to the question I asked you weeks ago: how did that help us?"

"Well..."

Marco reached behind her and grabbed the Mirror from her. "Hey! Has literally anything about my chances of dying changed?"

"NO." Probability 0.9999.

Star felt tears well up. "Look, we haven't found the missing piece. I know that. But that thing doesn't know everything either."

"It knows more than either of us do!"

"I know, but..."

"Star." Marco held out the Mirror for Star to take it back. "I'm trying, okay? I'm trying to keep up with your optimism in all this. But I can't keep doing this. I can't keep lying to myself about how this is going to turn out. And I can't tell whether you're lying to yourself, or just to me, but you need to come to terms with all of this sooner rather than later."

Star gulped. "Marco… I..."

He shook his head and walked back towards Star's room again, once again exiting the range of the Mirror.

She looked at the Mirror. "What could I possibly say to him?"

"SPECULATION: HIS DEPRESSION CAN NOT BE TALKED OUT OF. IT IS EXTREMELY LIKELY THAT THE ONLY WAY TO HELP MARCO IS TO FIND CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF A METHOD OF SAVING HIM. AS THINGS ARE RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE NO WAY OF DEVISING A SPELL THAT WILL CURE THE BOTH OF YOU, AND YOU HAVE NO GUARANTEE THAT OBTAINING THE MISSING DATA WILL ENABLE YOU TO FIND SUCH A METHOD."

Star gripped the Mirror tightly, then loosened her grip.

She looked in the direction where Marco had walked. "And he prefers the awfulness that is this curse? Really?"

"SPECULATION: IT IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE. MATCHING THE EXTERNAL WORLD TO HOW HE FEELS ON THE INSIDE REDUCES THE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN HIS MIND."

"I guess."

Star stood in place.

"Turn off the effect for me."

The world faded away and was replaced with the gory nightmare that she'd been trying to avoid. A putrid stench of rotting flesh filled her senses, and she immediately began to adjust her footing as the floor began breathe beneath her feet.

It was nauseating.

And yet…

Star walked out the front doors of the Palace and looked around the courtyard. A fountain in front had been replaced with what appeared to be the rent and sundered torso of a Mewman, upside-down, spewing pus and blood into the air. The hedges were made of jagged and fractured bones, the walls composed of cartilage. It felt like she was trapped inside a gargantuan creature that had been itself torn to pieces and reassembled haphazardly.

Mewmans walked through the courtyard, their forms twisted and warped. What appeared to be a couple were viciously attacking each other; Star was quite certain that that was definitely not what was really happening.

Above her, the sky was a gradiant between green, orange, and red, with little rhyme or reason driving the continuum. It was difficult to look at.

She was astonished by how powerful the Curse was on her senses. It wasn't just that everything had the skin of rotting flesh and sundered corpses pasted onto them: they seemed to take on entirely new forms which didn't correspond to their physical shape and mass. This wasn't new to Star; she understood perfectly well that these were symptoms of the Curse, that nothing appears the same as it―

Star blinked, and then gasped, in short order.

"Mirror. Re-enable the effect for me."

The blood and gore vanished, replaced with the natural courtyard during early evening.

Everything _did_ look quite different.

And what was it that the Mirror suggested before? Weeks ago? The Curse makes the Normal look Obscene, and…

"Mirror." Star said quietly. "Where did my mother put the Dimensional Scissors she confiscated from me?"

* * *

_It was only natural that she lied to me._

_That's what Mortals do. They compulsively lie about everything. She could have come to me and explained exactly what she really wanted. I'd have listened. I'd have given her time to make her case. I'm fair, and I deal with everyone I encounter equally and honestly. I don't know whether we'd have been able to strike a deal, but it was a definite possibility._

_But she didn't respect me enough to do that._

_Instead, she went behind my back._

_And for what?_

_She couldn't change anything. That's not how any of this works._

_Instead, she created a Blasphemy._

_And_

_It_

_Ruined_

_EVERYTHING._

_It took centuries to undo the damage she had caused, and I'm still dealing with the loose ends!_

_And that, more than anything else, is what I find so infuriating. This whole time, she has refused to see things logically. Instead, she lets emotion control her and dictate everything she does. Doesn't she see how much better it would be if she would let rationality take over? How all of this could have been avoided if she had sat down and simply considered a different perspective? How her hysterics are literally tearing up everything that matters? How―_

…

_Oh._

_That's interesting._

_It would seem we have a guest._

* * *

Day 26.

It was early morning.

Marco got up out of bed when he heard knocking at the door. "Star..."

He looked around the room.

Star was nowhere to be seen.

The Mirror was sitting on the chair, where they always put it in the mornings.

He rolled out of bed and crossed to the door.

Moon stood behind the door, looking slightly out of breath.

"Uh. Queen Moon?"

"Marco. Wake up Star, I have good news to deliver. The War Council approved a small contingent of soldiers to assist her. I can come along as well, and we have one member of the Magical high Council who can assist as well. We just need to know where to go."

Marco blinked. "That's… wow. I don't know what to say."

Moon stepped into the room. "Star, honey, are you awa―"

Once inside the room, she saw that Star wasn't in her bed.

"Wha…? Where is she?"

Marco threw up his hands. "I don't know."

"Did you see her before you went to bed?"

"Yeah, she was looking at stuff in the Mirror."

Moon looked down the hallway. "Is she bathing?"

Marco shrugged, then walked over to the Mirror. "Mirror, where is―"

A moment after Marco approached the Mirror, it suddenly lifted into the air, and began shimmering with a pale blue light.

"Uh."

Moon grabbed Marco and backed him away from the Mirror. "Has it ever done anything like that?"

"Not that I remember!"

The Mirror continued to hang in the air.

Marco called out, "Star! Where are you? Are you doing this?"


	46. SLAUGHTERING THE INNOCENT

"It's not too late to admit this was a bad idea. Reopen the portal, go home, crawl in bed, and pretend you didn't attempt this."

Those words escaped Star's mouth as she looked up into the sky.

Without the influence of the Mirror, the sky was, of course, gory. But in ways that Star didn't fully understand. Unlike the terrain around her, which resembled internal organs and body parts and bones, the sky was… Geometric. Like a mosaic, almost. The Moon was a perfect crimson Heptagon, and the 'tiles' around the moon seemed to be lit up from exposure to the moon, even though logically, it should have been nothing but empty space. Stars were perfect 5-point star shapes, also red in color, significantly brighter and bigger than they should have logically been.

She wasn't sure if it was a consequence of where she was; she'd not once looked up at the night sky while under the full effects of the Curse. Regardless, it was striking, almost beautiful, in comparison to the horror that awaited her the moment she lowered her gaze.

But lower her gaze she did, to look upon the tumorous canyon walls. The chunks of viscera and bones that didn't flow through the river, but instead seemed to _slide_ downstream.

If she was wrong, this had a good chance of getting her killed.

Star looked at the mouth of the cave.

"I'm not wrong." She whispered quietly, as she stepped forwards into the cave.

* * *

The gore didn't follow Star inside the cave. The entrance was disfigured much the same as the outside, but after half a minute walking in the cave, the ringing in her ears quieted, the walls turned back to the same black stone it had always been, the smell left her nose, and the noises of her own footsteps were no longer _squelching_ along the floor, but instead the firm taps and clacks of her boots against stone.

Star considered this to be an important observation: the cave looked the same, regardless of whether she was afflicted by the Curse or not. Whatever the cave was made of, it existed outside the continuum of Mewman psychology.

Likely Human psychology as well, she suspected.

For a brief moment, she cursed the decision to leave the Mirror behind, but quickly remembered that it was futile: the Mirror couldn't answer questions about the cave itself, and even if it could, if she'd taken it, it would have alerted Marco to what she was doing.

She loved Marco dearly; and that was why she needed to do this herself. Marco wouldn't have gone along with this plan―the Mirror gave a 1.17% chance that she could successfully convince him of the efficacy of her plan, and a 94.67% chance that he would alert her mother the moment she left, if he knew about the plan.

Marco needed hope. Something to believe in. And he was always bad at seeking it out himself.

Star continued through the tunnels. Once again, it was an unfamiliar path, one which had no resemblance to the path she'd taken previously, or either of the two paths Eclipsa had taken into the cave.

She stopped.

Eclipsa had seen something under the cave.

Star placed her hand on the stone below her feet and tried to pulse out some energy.

It didn't seem to have any effect.

Whatever Eclipsa was doing to detect… 'It'... Star didn't know about it.

So she continued through the cave.

Until she reached a long hallway.

She continued to walk forwards through the hallway.

In the antechamber, she saw the pedestal where the Mirror had once sat. Before she entered the antechamber, she raised up her wand. Beforehand, she'd asked the Mirror about a spell to dispel the Time Bubble trap that had been placed on the pedestal―Star still didn't know who had placed that trap there, but she was quite confident that it was Eclipsa herself, and a Speculation led by the Mirror corroborated her assumptions―and once the trap was fully removed, Star entered the Antechamber.

As she entered the chamber, she became aware of a presence behind her.

It was most definitely the Artificer.

She turned around, and saw―

―a young man, whose face she didn't immediately recognize, until she realized that it was the guard, back in the Throne room, from the first scene they'd witnessed of Eclipsa, after she'd heard the testimony of the third child.

The young man grinned, raised up a sword, and began lunging towards Star.

There was no doubt: this was the last Artificer.

But there was no looming shadow.

No monstrous creature.

Just a single Mewman, with a sword.

Star raised up her wand, and, for the first time in a long time, yelled out "Narwhal Blast!"

She aimed the spell directly at the man.

It struck him in the chest, and he flew backwards, the sword clattering to the side.

Star ran towards him, her wand held high.

He stared, wide-eyed at Star, unable to comprehend what had just happened. He reached for his sword, and Star stepped on his arm before he could do anything.

His eyes widened even further, and he looked up at Star.

And then, in a surprisingly normal voice,

"You can see me?!"

Star was somewhat shocked that he was capable of speaking in a normal tone, but immediately accepted it and responded. "Yes."

He stared at her for a moment before breaking into a light chuckle. "And you can hear and understand me too! What fresh hell is this?"

Star smirked. "My latest bad idea. See, you know that curse your friend put on us? Well, you probably know that it takes the entire world and turns it into a horror show. What you maybe _didn't_ know is that it takes anything that _would have been_ a horror show, and makes it look normal." She looked at the surprisingly lanky man. "I know what you really look like, both right now, and what you'd look like if you physically materialized. But if I were protecting my senses, so that I'd see that? I'd be unable to fight you. You'd probably kill me without spending much effort. But now, thanks to this curse? You don't pose a threat to me anymore." Star rested her wand on her shoulder. "I owe him my thanks, for this much at least."

He frowned. "She."

"What?"

"Areana was the one who put the curse on the two of you. She and I were the only ones left."

"Huh."

There was a brief silence between them.

"What's your name?"

"Zemd."

"Zemd." Star rolled her eyes. "Fine. I have a few questions, and it's in your best interest to answer them honestly."

He glanced briefly at her boot, which was still trampling his arm. "Go on."

"Firstly. There's absolutely no other Artificers left, other than you, correct?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes."

"Why were you two the only ones left? I thought Eclipsa was going to kill you all off."

"She tried to. Areana was a lot more clever than the others. She had a few tricks to evade Eclipsa, especially since the Mirror wasn't working anymore."

"Hmm."

They were both silent, with Star still stepping on his arm, and Zemd still staring at Star.

Actually…

"So when did you become an Artificer? I've been doing research on what Eclipsa was doing, and you were still the Royal Guard when Eclipsa began investigating the Guild."

"I became an apprentice between when Eclipsa began her investigation, and when she ambushed us here, months later."

"You mean when she _caught_ you. When you caught all of you, doing those horrible, horrible things."

He narrowed his eyes again. "Hey, don't lump me in with them. I never actually touched a child."

Star scoffed. "And what? That somehow makes it better? You were still there. You knew fully well what they were doing."

"I was a bystander!"

"There's no such thing as bystanders when children are being abused! You're either an abuser yourself, or someone who enabled it!" Star spat out her next words, "and like Eclipsa, I don't see much difference between the two."

"Tch." He said, scoffing.

"What?"

"So very, very typical. I thought you were supposed to be the Rebel Princess. But look at you. You've become authoritarian."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, this is why I wanted to be part of the Artificers in the first place! People like you and Eclipsa, who have no tolerance, no empathy, for people who see things differently from you. You think you know what right and wrong is, and that if someone else disagrees with you, they must be evil."

Star stared incredulously at him. "THEY. WERE. ABUSING. CHILDREN. That's not a 'different point of view' to 'reasonably debate against', that's just pure evil! What are you going on about, trying to high-road me on this?"

"Well, I'm glad you admit to being unable to see things logically and rationally. God, hundreds of years, and the Mewman race is still dominated by people who put their feelings before logic."

Star pressed down on his arm, causing him to yelp in pain.

"What? I thought you said feelings don't matter? So clearly the pain you're _feeling_ shouldn't matter."

He glared at her in response.

"Let's get back on track. Are you still in possession of the Fate Mana that your people stole from her?"

Zemd narrowed his eyes. "I have my fragment, yes."

Star folded her arms. "Alright. Then as far as I'm concerned, this is pretty simple. Give it up to me. Do that, and I walk out of here and leave you alone."

He blinked. "I can't do that."

"What?"

"First of all, I literally don't know how to do it. Secondly, the only thing I _do_ know how to do with it is cast that Curse, and well..." He grinned. "I've tried to cast it like three times now and not once has it worked."

Star briefly bared her teeth. "Dummy. I'm already affected by the Curse."

"Hmph. Figures."

"What happened to the Fate Mana that the other Artificers had in their possession?"

He tilted his head. "Every time one of us cast the curse, it caused the Mirror to glow blue for a few minutes. Our theory was that when one of us died, the Fate Mana returned directly to the Mirror."

Star felt slightly light-headed as he said that. "So there's no way to give the Fate Mana to me then. Even if I kill you, it just goes back to the Mirror?"

"Pretty much."

"DAMN IT!"

Zemd winced again as Star accidentally put pressure on her boot.

"Why does this always...?" She glared at Zemd. "To the very end, you guys are just the worst."

Zemd rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just leave then."

Star blinked at him. "What, you think I'm done with you? I still need to recover the Fate Mana from you, regardless of whether I can obtain it myself."

"What, so you're just going to kill me?"

Star narrowed her eyes. "I don't have a choice! I was going to lead people here to do it for me, but I'm kind of feeling like this is a burden I should take on myself. And—I don't know why you seem to keep forgetting this—but you're the reason we're cursed in the first place! You and… whats-her-face."

"You're the ones who wandered in here without permission!"

"You're the ones who lured us here!"

"We..." A look of comprehension appeared on his face, which slowly turned into a grin. "Oh man. It finally worked!"

"What?"

"No one ever comes to this cave of their own volition, so she decided to project an influence spell to lure people here. But there was a problem. That barrier is still intact. We can't leave this cave, nor can we project outwards into Mewnie. So she decided to project out the other hallways."

"The…?" Star looked at the other hallways leading out of the Antechamber. "Where do those go?"

He shrugged. "Different places entirely. Places that aren't Mewnie. But it wasn't working. Nothing ever responded to the summons. I thought the spell just wasn't working, but she was insistent that it was." He narrowed his eyes. "Tell me. On the dimension you hail from, are there any other Mewmans there that aren't you?"

Star thought back to Earth. There were certainly a lot of non-Humans on Earth, but she wasn't certain that there were specifically any Mewmans there. "I don't think so."

He shrewdly smiled. "So that was the problem the whole time. The projection spell only works on Mewmans. She projected into thousands of different dimensions, but didn't find one that had Mewmans in it until almost a hundred years later. How about that?"

Star sighed. "So why was she so desperate to Curse us in the first place? Why couldn't you just leave us alone?"

Zemd had a perverse look on his face. "It's all the Artificers would ever talk about. Successfully casting that Curse on someone… It's the most amazing feeling in the world. You've known the Curse for a month. We've known the experience of being affected by the Curse for far longer. Casting it finally puts us out of our misery, and in the moment we cast it… It's basically just one big Orgasm to end our lives."

Star flinched. "Ew! Don't talk like that!"

He looked indignant. "Oh come on, you're old enough to understand that stuff!"

Star stared at him incredulously. "I'm Fourteen!"

"Yeah, what, were you raised in a monastery or something?"

Star's mouth was open for a second before she spoke. "Just because I'm old enough to understand that stuff doesn't make it okay for you, someone who's many times my age, to say that stuff _to me_! You're the one who tried to defend yourself earlier by insisting you weren't as bad as the other Artificers, but you talk almost exactly the same way as they did!"

Zemd rolled his eyes. "I guess having free thoughts is a crime too."

Star shook her head. "Wha…?! That doesn't make any sense!"

He grinned. "You know you're such a hypocrite."

Star blinked. "What?"

"When the two of you were trapped in that bubble, we spent a lot of time talking about the two of you. How adorable the two of you would be together. But I've now realized something. The two of you are fucking, aren't you? And you have the nerve to yell at me for how I _talk_."

Star shook in place. "Ex-CUSE ME?!"

"Come on! Areana deduced that the two of you were living together. Two hormonal teenagers, I bet you spend a lot of nights grinding it up when the parents aren't around, don't you? It's perfectly natural, and it's not like there's so many differences between Human and Mewman biology."

"EW! EW EW EW EW EW EW EW!" Star stepped back, feeling thoroughly disgusted. "Marco and I aren't like that!"

"But you've fantasized about it, haven't you? All girls your age fantasize about stuff like that."

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

"Come on, just admit―"

Star unleashed a blast of energy at Zemd's arm, causing him to scream out in pain.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Star screamed, holding her wand in front of herself.

"I'm… Urgh! Just showing you the truth!"

"What, that you're a huge pervert who fantasizes about fourteen year olds having sex?!"

"It's perfectly natural!"

"It's not―" Star clasped her hands over her face and glared at him through her fingers. "Let's suppose, for a second, that I actually did have those kinds of thoughts towards him. That's what's natural, alright? That's what Mewberty―and apparently Human Puberty―does. But you, a fully grown adult, talking openly about how you fantasize about underaged kids having sex… That's not normal, okay? Or at least it _shouldn't_ be! You want to talk about morality and ethical gray areas? How about we start with the fact that you, an adult, talking exactly like that, _is exactly how abusers like the Artificers lure in children in the first place!_ People like them―like you!―Use that kind of language to normalize all the messed up stuff they're planning to do! You might not be as bad as one of the people who were actually touching kids, but you're absolutely bad enough that if you weren't trapped in this awful place, you'd be making the world a safer place for all these child abusers!"

At this point, Star realized that Zemd had retrieved his sword and gotten up, preparing to lunge at her again. Star readied another spell as he closed the distance, and flung him into a wall.

"So you're not even going to consider my point of view, are you?" He yelled out.

"No! Because you don't have a point of view worth considering! You're just acting the way an abuser acts, and justifying it by insisting that because you have the right to hold a stupid opinion, that I have to treat that opinion as though it isn't stupid!"

Zemd stared at her.

"You don't get to sit there, after everything they've done, after joining them despite knowing everything they've done, and act like you're the rational actor here who's being smeared."

He bared his teeth. "Screw you."

He lunged towards Star, but Star's eyes lit up, as did the blush stickers on her cheeks. She pointed her wand directly at him, and much like it had when she accidentally attacked Jackie, a powerful blast erupted from her wand. The blast shot forth, struck him square in the chest, and before long, his whole body was incinerated, leaving behind no corpse.

Star's eyes returned to normal, and she began to breathe heavily.

" _Figures."_

* * *

Star panicked when she heard his voice inside her head, but quickly remembered what Eclipsa's Journal had said about the method to kill an Artificer, and that it required destroying them both physically and psychically.

She pondered for a moment, before sending him a thought back: " _You know,_ _for a while there, I thought it would be the noble thing to let you live. That it wasn't my place to hand down a sentence like that, no longer knowing that killing you would even do anything good_ _._ "

" _Hmph. Why d_ _o you even need the Fate Mana in the first place_ _?_ "

Star briefly considered not responding, but went ahead anyways: " _I need it to save Marco's life and end the curse._ "

Star wasn't quite sure, but the voice sounded like it was laughing.

" _What's so funny?_ "

" _Well, you've certainly created a lot more work for yourself than you needed to!_ "

" _What do you mean?"_

" _Well, because there's actually a really simple way to save his life."_

Star froze, and carefully considered what he was saying. " _I don't want to hear it. How do I know you aren't lying?_ "

" _Missy, I don't need to lie. Telling you the honest truth is going to be enough revenge for me."_

"… _Why?"_

" _Because the Curse, at least for the victims, is a Contract."_

" _What?"_

" _Yeah. It's a Contract, made with the God of Fate."_

Star shivered as he said that.

" _What do you mean?"_

" _In exchange for―well, you know―we offer the souls of the people we Curse as payment. We offer their lives up to the God of Fate, and Hhe gives us the release we so desperately seek. We use the Fate Mana to attach your Strings to His, and he claims your lives for Himself. But here's the thing: He only takes the soul of one of the victims. The rest are allowed to keep their souls. And while the Contract is particular about which soul He gets, He… is less particular. You see where I'm going?"_

Star felt uneasy. " _You're saying, if I were to go to the God of Fate… I could save Marco's life… By giving up my own."_

" _Precisely!"_

" _And, what, I'm just supposed to believe that?!"_

" _Kid, I don't care whether you think that's a good deal or not. I'm just happy knowing that, because you now know this, you'll have to suffer over whether to take that deal or not."_

Star folded her arms around herself, realizing the implications.

" _Whatever. Hey, do me a favor: when you see Marco again, how's about you actually have your way with him? Give yourself a nice treat before―"_

Star unleashed the most powerful psychic blast she could, and the voice vanished, followed by a sensation that Star intuitively understood to mean he was now, finally, well and truly dead.

Star leaned back against the wall, and slumped to the floor.

* * *

Was she supposed to feel bad about this? She just killed someone. He might have been awful, but he was still a person.

But Star didn't feel bad about it. She just felt irritated that Eclipsa hadn't done it first.

Star looked at her wand.

She had a way to save Marco!

But…

She thought about what he had said.

The God of Fate.

That _had_ to be who Eclipsa was talking about, when she was talking to the Mirror about its owner, right? Which means he resides in the Dimension of Fate.

So, if she just copied the spell that Eclipsa used, she could enchant her Dimensional Scissors, go to the Dimension of Fate, find the God of Fate, and…

Kill herself.

Those were the terms.

_No, he had to be lying!_ It was just a trick. Zemd trying to have the last laugh. Even if the God of Fate could be negotiated with, surely he wouldn't demand her life in exchange for Marco's? It's not like they'd done anything wrong. Wouldn't he take something else?

Star sighed.

She didn't need to think about this now. She didn't have the Fate Mana, but she did restore the last fragment of Fate Mana to the Mirror. That should mean, by all rights, it should have been completely repaired―or at least have the missing module necessary to successfully repair itself.

So the only thing left was…

Star stood up, and made her way for the hallway she came from.

Then, she paused.

And turned around.

The Antechamber was massive, and despite the walls, there were so many tunnels leading out of the Antechamber. Every single time Star had been here, or Eclipsa had been here, they'd always used the same tunnel to enter and exit.

Where did the other tunnels go?

Star used her wand to mark the tunnel she had entered from, then picked a random tunnel to enter.

The experience of walking through this tunnel was no different than any other. It seemed to simply be one long tunnel, where eventually, at the end, was light corresponding to the outside.

Something was definitely off though. While Star could see the gory nature outside the cave, it was textured very differently. And as she emerged from the cave, she looked around.

She was quite obviously not in the canyon. In fact, though it was difficult to tell through the filtering of the Curse, the area where she emerged didn't look like the Outerlands of Mewnie at all.

"Wait." Star said out loud.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a sheet of paper, with the steps for a spell inscribed onto it.

It wasn't like she needed working ears right now, anyways. She just wanted to _see_ what was going on.

She cast the spell, and the next moment, the gore faded from sight. Everything still had a red tint to it―this spell wasn't as comprehensive as the Mirror―but she could at least see the actual objects underneath the haze.

And she recognized the flora right away.

"This is Earth!" Star exclaimed.

There was no mistaking it. That cave―whatever it was―was something like a permanent portal connecting Mewnie and Earth.

And probably more besides.

Star thought back. Didn't Janna say something about someone named 'Helcroft' who encountered an Artificer when he was young? And now that she thought about it… was he a contemporary of Eclipsa's?

She couldn't remember if Janna had said anything about when Helcroft was alive.

But this explained a lot. They astrally projected to Star, through the connection between the Cave and Earth.

Though it did leave one minor question left unanswered: why did she and Marco end up exploring it from the Mewnie side? Surely they would have tried to explore it from the Earth side?

But then, the Artificers were from Mewnie. And they apparently could only communicate with Mewmans. So maybe they only knew how to project information about the Mewnie side of the cave.

Star stepped back inside the cave. Another half hour of wandering through the labyrinth, and she emerged into the Antechamber again, her markings on the floor still visible. Strictly speaking, she didn't need those markings, as she only needed to take any of the tunnels to exit the cave and use her scissors, but there was something fascinating. Star placed a different Marker next to the Earth tunnel, and picked another tunnel. She once again passed through a long hallway, and emerged from a cave entrance in a forest.

This place was… weird.

The Flora was 'Earth-like', but somehow, Star didn't feel like it really was Earth. Or, to be more precise, it felt like Earth, but there was something distinctly 'non-Earth' about it.

Was it the forest?

She peered through the forest, trying to ignore the discoloration. There was something in the distance, in the forest.

Some kind of house.

On top of it, the words "The Mystery Shack" printed in large, misshapen letters.

"Yeah, I suppose it is a big mystery," Star quietly ruminated.

She turned to reenter the cave once more. In the Antechamber, she left one last set of markings by the tunnel she had just emerged from, and then took the Mewnie tunnel out.

When she emerged in the Canyon, she pulled out her Dimensional Scissors. "Alright. Let's go home."

She opened up the portal, and stepped through, emerging into her bedroom, to a bewildered Marco and Moon, staring at her.

Dismissing the spell affecting her vision, Star's eyes widened slightly. "Uh."

They stared at her.

"I'm back."


	47. ZEALOTRY

"What… Where did you go? How did you get those scissors? What did you do?"

Moon had lost her composure and was sputtering.

Star strode past her mother and picked up the mirror, which was no longer glowing and was sitting idle. "Well, I went to the cave where the last Artificer was located, obviously I stole them back from you, and I killed him and returned the last fragment of Fate Mana to the Mirror."

"WHAT?!" Moon exclaimed.

Marco, too, was confused. "Wait, what did you do?"

Star held up the Mirror, then spun around to look at a very confused Marco and a very flabbergasted Moon.

"Mom. When I set this thing to begin working on repairs, it's not going to be able to mask the effects of the curse while it does that. I could use magic to keep my hearing intact, but it's probably better if I just have a proper chance to sit down and explain what happened. Meet me in the meeting room in one hour."

Moon's expression at this point was unreadable. For a split second, it almost looked like _pride_. But shortly thereafter, it became distrust and outrage, eventually resolving into deep concern.

However, she could clearly tell that Star wasn't lying.

"Alright. Don't be late. I want a full accounting of what you did."

Moon left the room.

Marco stared at Star. "I'm sorry… You said you KILLED the last Artificer?"

"Yes."

There was a silence while Star stared at the Mirror. "Begin your diagnostics process, and perform repairs once you're done."

The room turned dismal and fleshy once more, and Marco instinctively moved away from the walls.

"How?!"

Star sighed. "I don't want to repeat myself, and it's a little complicated. I'll give the full explanation when I'm sitting down with my mom."

Marco folded his arms. "Listen, Star, about what I said a few days ago..."

"You were right, by the way, Marco."

"What?"

Star turned to look directly at him, a vulnerable expression on her face. "I keep telling myself that I understand how you feel, because we're experiencing the same horrible world together―"

As she said this, almost to punctuate her point, a tendril suddenly lashed out from the wall, slapping loudly across the floor before incorporating itself back into the wall.

"―but the fact is, I'm still not the person who's dying. So when I'm stuck in an obvious cycle of non-progress trying to save you, it's easier to convince myself that this is normal and expected than it would be for you. It's easier to overlook how little progress we've really made, and how little we really have to go on. So I'm sorry that I wasn't thinking about that."

Marco shook his head. "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing. It wasn't okay for me to snap at you like that."

Star blinked as Marco stepped close to her―close enough that her heart skipped a beat.

"You've been trying to help me. You might be the only person who's actively trying to save me. Maybe you've been less successful than I want, but it can't be easy for you either. You've kept trying, even in spite of me yelling at you. That's..." He turned his head away from her. "More than I can say about a lot of people."

Star placed her hands on his shoulders. "Of course. You're my friend, Marco. I'd do anything for you."

He smiled back at her.

The room suddenly changed again before them.

Star blinked, expecting the repair process to take longer. She picked up the Mirror, and with a grin, showed the display to Marco:

"42,000,001 MODULES HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED."

"Mirror," she responded, "how many modules are still damaged or missing?"

"THIS DEVICE NO LONGER HAS ANY MISSING OR DAMAGED MODULES."

"Full functionality has been restored." Star said meaningfully.

* * *

"So what did you do?"

Star sat at the table, with Marco standing near the door, and Moon on the other side of the table, surrounded by several Mewnie War Council members. She briefly eyed the War Council members, then responded to her mother. "I went to the cave where the last Artificer was remaining, killed it, and returned the Fate Mana it had to the Mirror."

Moon placed a hand on her head. "Wh―that was extremely dangerous, Star! Why didn't you wait for us to gather a proper strike team?"

"Well, actually… Wait, what? You were actually going to send people?"

"The War Council approved the request this morning! They suggested to me, and I had to agree, that dealing with the Artificer was a matter of Kingdom Security, given that it knew secrets about the kingdom that shouldn't have been public. Whether it saved Marco or not was incidental; it needed to be dealt with."

Star blinked. "But it was a terrible plan!"

Moon's mouth opened and closed several times, dumbfounded. When she finally spoke, it was almost a screech: "IT WAS YOUR TERRIBLE PLAN, STAR!"

Star groaned. "I know, I know, I… Look, then I ought to know, right? I ought to know better than anyone how terrible that plan was."

"Then why did you suggest it in the first place?"

"Because at the time, I thought..." Star took a deep breath. "Okay. We need to back up a moment."

Moon folded her arms. "Okay then."

Star exhaled. "Okay. So you know how Marco and I are both affected by this curse, okay? And that one of the main symptoms of the curse is that it makes everything around us look hostile and scary and horrible and disgusting, right? Well, you remember how I once suggested that we might be able to have good-tasting meals if something terrible were prepared and served to us? I realized that this concept applied to the Artificers as well: when we were normal, the Artificers were horrific and deadly and incomprehensible. But afflicted with the Curse, the Curse makes us see them in a different state: normal and comprehensible. When I went to that cave, I didn't see and fight a massive monster resistant to normal attacks; I fought a Mewman man. That's all he was, to me."

Moon relaxed somewhat. "We still should have sent people to accompany you."

Star shook her head. "No. Anyone you sent along with us would have gotten killed. Marco and I would have had to clean up the aftermath."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so... having _your perceptions_ altered makes them less able to tear you to pieces?"

Star leaned back in her chair, bringing its front legs off the floor. "Eclipsa wrote in her Journal that Artificers aren't merely a Physical Manifestation, but a Psychic Manifestation, too. The effects of the curse still aren't 100% clear, but I suspect that much—possibly most—of what made Artificers dangerous was their ability to Psychically affect their enemies. Because I was now immune to that, the only thing it had left was its physical abilities, and well..." Star narrowed her eyes. "He tried to goad me into using a Psychic attack, which would have materialized him Physically. That would have been genuinely dangerous for me. But I avoided doing that."

Star suddenly widened her eyes. "Wait... Now that I think about it... I think that _was_ how he attacked me. He really was as dangerous as normal, but how I perceived it was..."

"What are you talking about?"

Star shook her head. "Okay, wow. Yeah, I really shouldn't have done that. I got really lucky. Or... I guess 'lucky' isn't quite how I would put it. I was 'prepared' for it. Psychologically equipped to handle his attack, which was easier to fend off because it was comprehensible, even as awful as it was."

Moon suddenly looked worried. "Are you hurt?!"

Star shook her head. "No. I'm fine. I'm just... trying to parse this whole thing out."

Moon frowned. "What what about Marco? Are you going to be able to cure yourself and him?"

Star averted her gaze. "Well. It's one more piece of the puzzle. Again. The Mirror is fully functional." She slumped her head on her hand. "We'll see if that makes a difference."

Moon nodded. "Alright." She turned to the members of the council. "Do any of you have any questions?"

A taller woman in a military outfit raised her hand. "Are you certain that all remaining members of the ancient Mewnie Artificer's Guild has been eliminated, and thus no longer represents a threat to Mewnie?"

Star glanced back at Marco. "Marco?"

Marco held up the Mirror. "Mirror. Uhh. The same question she asked."

"NO MEMBERS, ACTIVE OR RETIRED, OF THE MEWNIE ARTIFICERS GUILD REMAIN ALIVE. THEY DO STILL POSE A THREAT, DUE TO THE ACTIVE CURSE PLACED ON MARCO DIAZ AND STAR BUTTERFLY, BUT THIS THREAT WILL CEASE TO EXIST WHEN THE CURSE DISAPPEARS, WHETHER THROUGH MARCO DIAZ'S EXPIRATION, OR THROUGH THE IMPROBABLE SUCCESS IN DISPELLING THE CURSE."

Marco read the mirror out loud to the room, stammering on the last few words of the response.

The room went quiet for a few seconds, then the woman cleared her throat. "Alright. That's all I needed to know."

She quickly departed the room, followed by the other Council members.

Moon sighed.

Star looked up at her mom. "Are we free to go?"

Moon averted her gaze for a moment. "Please don't do anything like that ever again, Star. It turned out okay this time, but..." She narrowed her eyes.

Star tried to read the expression on her mother's face. Moon was clearly very worried, but it seemed like there was something else on her mind.

"Marco." Moon suddenly said. "Could you wait outside the room for a few minutes?"

Marco looked a little surprised, but stepped behind the door and closed it.

"Mom? What—"

"I'm not going to tell you to do anything, or not to do anything."

"What?"

Moon stood up and slowly paced around the room. "Exactly what I said. Do what you have to to save him." She looked at the door for a moment. "I'm waiving the promise I made you make. If you get to the last hour and still don't have a solution, you can keep searching. To the bitter end."

Star felt her breath catch in her chest. "Mom... Why? What's going on?"

Moon sighed. "I'm in a bind, Star. I've been thinking about your situation a lot. And after hearing what I've heard today, something became really clear to me. I _have_ to let you do this."

Star gave her mom a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Moon smirked. "For a number of reasons, I don't think you want me to spell it out. Especially if Marco is listening through the door. I just know that... When all this is over, regardless of what happens, if you feel, even for a moment, that you didn't do literally everything in your power to save him..." Moon closed her eyes. "You'll hate me. You'll hate yourself. And that will follow you your whole life. I know it will. Because..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter how I know. So don't hold back anything."

Star nodded quickly. "Thank you, mom."

Moon gestured to the door, and Star got up.

"Star?"

Star turned around.

"Just... Be careful. That's all I need."


	48. FINALLY, A GOOD IDEA

Day 25.

"Alright," Star began, sitting in front of the Mirror. "I want a full account of what happened to the Artificers, what the Doom Curse is, and why I can't save Marco. You're fully repaired, so you shouldn't have any corrupt data to sift through anymore. If there's anything you're forbidden from talking about, try to find a way to explain around it." Star paused for a moment, and looked at Marco as she tried to choose her words carefully. "The Artificer casually described the Curse as a kind of Contract made with the God of Fate. I know there's probably a lot there you can't talk about, but if there's anything you can confirm on that front, that too would be helpful."

The Mirror took several minutes with its primary pane shimmering before it responded.

"THIS DEVICE HAS ORGANIZED THE DATA IN AN ORDER MOST LIKELY TO BE COMPREHENSIBLE TO YOU.

ZEMD'S USE OF THE TERM 'CONTRACT' IS A COLLOQUIALISM HE CHOSE TO USE. THIS DEVICE WILL NOT PERPETUATE THE USE OF THAT TERMINOLOGY.

THE SPELL THAT ECLIPSA INTENDED TO CAST ON THE ARTIFICERS WOULD HAVE DETACHED THE STRINGS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CHILDREN'S ABUSE, ATTACHED THEM TO THE ARTIFICERS, AND AMPLIFIED THE EFFECT DRAMATICALLY, AS A FORM OF KARMIC TORTURE FOR THEIR SINS. THE FIRST TWO COMPONENTS OF THE SPELL WERE PERFORMED FLAWLESSLY, BUT THE FINAL ACT WAS MANGLED BY THE INTERFERENCE OF ONE OF THE ARTIFICERS DURING THE CASTING OF THE SPELL. THE CONSEQUENCE WAS THAT HER ACTIONS CAUSED ALL THE STRINGS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ARTIFICERS TO UNRAVEL, INCLUDING THE STRINGS THAT GAVE THEM FORM.

STRINGS CONNECTED TO THE ARTIFICERS, EVEN IF NOT DIRECTLY ATTACHED, WERE ALSO AFFECTED. THOUGH NO LIVING BEING OUTSIDE THE CAVE SUFFERED PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE, VIRTUALLY EVERY LIVING CREATURE IN MEWNIE DID SUFFER SOME DEGREE OF ALTERATION TO THEIR STRINGS. AND BECAUSE STRINGS SPAN ACROSS BOTH THE INTERSECTION OF THE FATE-SPACE AXIS' AND THE INTERSECTION OF THE FATE-TIME AXIS', THE EFFECTS SPANNED THE MONTHS SURROUNDING THE IRIS EXPERIMENT. THIS DEVICE PREVIOUSLY REFERRED TO THE MANGLING OF THESE STRINGS AS 'CORRUPT DATA', AS WITHOUT THE FULL SUITE OF FATE MANA, THIS DEVICE'S ABILITY TO ANALYZE THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE DATA CORRESPONDING TO THIS TIME WAS HAMPERED BY THE INABILITY TO PARSE THE DATA RELATING TO THE MANGLED STRINGS.

OVER TIME, THESE PERTURBATIONS CORRECTED THEMSELVES, AS IS THE NATURE OF STRINGS, BUT AN APPROXIMATE RATIO OF 0.3782 OF ALL LIVING BEINGS SUFFERED PERMANENT ALTERATIONS TO THEIR STRINGS, AND A RATIO OF 0.0467 HAD THESE CHANGES BE SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH TO RADICALLY ALTER THE PROGRESSION OF THEIR EXISTENCES.

FOR THE ARTIFICERS THEMSELVES, MANY OF THE ARTIFICERS PERISHED INSTANTLY AT THE MOMENT THEIR STRINGS UNRAVELED. THEIR FATE MANA WAS RETURNED TO THIS DEVICE AT THE MOMENT OF THEIR EXPIRATION. THE REMAINING ARTIFICERS SURVIVED BY INCORPORATING THE FREED STRINGS INTO THEMSELVES, USING THE FATE MANA THEY HAD STOLEN FROM ECLIPSA TO MANIPULATE THE STRINGS THEMSELVES.

THE ARTIFICERS ARE THE CONSEQUENCE OF THESE MANGLED STRINGS BEING AFFIXED TO AN INDIVIDUAL. THERE ARE A WIDE VARIETY OF CONSEQUENCES FOR THIS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE FACT THAT THEY LIVE IN CONSTANT AGONY, HAVING TO BEAR THE BRUNT OF THEIR SINS ALONG WITH THE TORTURE OF THE MANGLED STRINGS AFFLICTING THEM. THEY DO NOT AGE, AND THUS COULD NOT NATURALLY EXPIRE.

THE DOOM CURSE, THEN, IS A MECHANISM BY WHICH THE ARTIFICER IS RELEASED FROM ITS TORMENT BY TAKING THE CONGEALED MASS OF MANGLED STRINGS AND PASSING IT ALONG TO A SINGLE OTHER BEING. THIS IS THE LYNCHPIN OF THE CURSE: HAVING THESE STRINGS ATTACHED TO A DIFFERENT BEING ALLOWS THE ARTIFICER TO EXPIRE, AND FORCES THE BEING TO SUFFER THE BROAD PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS THAT THE ARTIFICER PREVIOUSLY SUFFERED FROM. BECAUSE THE BEING IS UNLIKELY TO HAVE ACCESS TO FATE MANA, THESE EFFECTS EVENTUALLY RESULT IN THE BEING EXPIRING AS THE MANGLED STRINGS INTERFERE WITH AND EVENTUALLY DESTROY THE OTHER STRINGS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BEING.

SAVING A BEING WHICH HAS BEEN AFFLICTED BY THIS 'CURSE', THEN, REQUIRES SIMPLY THAT A BEING IN POSSESSION OF THE ABILITY TO MANIPULATE STRINGS TO DESTROY THOSE MANGLED STRINGS, OR UNMANGLE THEM, OR REATTACH THEM TO ANOTHER BEING."

Star ruminated on this response for several minutes, as Marco did the same.

"I have a question," she finally said, "you said that the 'mangled strings' are passed along to a single other person. That explains why the Curse only kills one person, but it doesn't explain why anyone else gets affected by the Curse."

"THIS IS BECAUSE THE MECHANISM THE ARTIFICERS USED TO TRANSFER THE MANGLED STRINGS TO ANOTHER BEING―MUCH LIKE THE ORIGINAL SPELL THAT ECLIPSA MISCAST―ALSO IMPACTS ANY OTHER BEINGS ADJACENT TO THE TARGET BEING. YOU NOW HAVE AN ADDITIONAL STRING BINDING YOU TO MARCO THAT INTERSECTS WITH THE MANGLED STRINGS ATTACHED DIRECTLY TO HIM."

"And the original Artificers couldn't die from those strings because they had access to Fate Mana?"

"THIS IS NOT PRECISELY CORRECT. NORMAL LIVING BEINGS HAVE BASIC ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS THAT MUST BE PERFORMED TO STAY ALIVE, AND THIS CURSE INTERFERES WITH THOSE FUNCTIONS TO THE POINT THAT THEY CEASE TO BE. ARTIFICERS HAD NONE OF THESE FUNCTIONS, AND THUS COULD NOT BE KILLED BY THESE EFFECTS."

"Right."

Marco leaned in towards the Mirror. "So… The way to save me is to detach those Strings from me. How do we… do that?"

"IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR EITHER OF YOU TO LEARN HOW TO TAP INTO FATE MANA IN TIME TO PREVENT MARCO'S EXPIRATION."

Star sighed. "Okay, but it doesn't necessarily have to be us, right? We'd just have to find _someone_ who can manipulate Fate Mana and convince them to help us."

"IF THERE WERE ANOTHER MORTAL WHO COULD MANIPULATE FATE MANA, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO REMOVE THE CURSE."

Star clapped her hands. "Alright. So who else can do it?"

"NO ONE."

Star frowned. "That… You mean to tell me, in the entire universe, there's literally no one else who has ever learned even a modicum of Fate Magic?"

"CORRECT."

Marco stood up. "I'm going to use the restroom."

"Marco..." Star said, her voice tempered.

"Excuse me." He left the room without requesting to take the Mirror with him.

Star wrapped her arms around her knees. "I don't think I even need to confirm he's not actually going to the bathroom."

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

"When is Marco going to die?"

"25 DAYS FROM NOW."

Probability 0.9999.

This was less shocking than it had been before. Not just because Star had seen this information multiple times now, but also because she knew now that, since saving him depended on them altering his Strings, there really wasn't any way for the Mirror to have an accurate metric. For all she knew, the probability actually was higher than 0%, and the Mirror simply couldn't calculate it.

Especially considering…

"Mirror." Star said quietly, eyeing the door to make sure Marco didn't walk back in. "What Zemd said about the God of Fate. That I could make a deal with him, to trade my life for Marco's. Is it true?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM PROVIDING INFORMATION ON THAT SUBJECT."

"Okay, but..." Star let out an exasperated sound. "If anyone _had_ the ability to manipulate Strings, it would be him, right? He created you, right?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORB―"

"I know, I know!" Star threw up her arms. "Do a speculation on it then! What are the odds that I could save Marco by offering my life to the God of Fate?"

The Mirror took several minutes to offer up a response, and Star felt her breath catch in her chest when she read it:

"SPECULATION: THE GOD OF FATE WILL NOT ACCEPT AN EQUAL EXCHANGE TO SAVE MARCO'S LIFE. IT WILL EXPECT MORE; IN PRACTICAL TERMS, IT WILL PROBABLY EXPECT YOU TO ALSO YIELD THE DAYS LEADING UP TO HIS EXPIRATION AS WELL. IF YOU MADE AN OFFER TO IMMEDIATELY YIELD YOUR LIFE, SACRIFICING BOTH YOUR LIFE AND THE DAYS YOU WOULD HAVE OTHERWISE HAD WITH MARCO BEFORE HIS EXPIRATION, HE MIGHT BE PERSUADED TO PERFORM THE EXCHANGE."

Consensus 0.8945.

Confidence 0.9999.

Star's voice trembled as she spoke. "So the longer I wait, the less likely he'll take the deal. Uh, speculate that."

"SPECULATION: THAT IS CORRECT." Consensus 0.8945, Confidence 0.9999.

Star shivered.

This wasn't the only option. It _couldn't_ be the only option.

… And the longer she tried to convince herself of that, the less likely she'd be able to save him.

Star placed her hand on her chest.

Marco was never going to love her. Not the way she loved him. She knew that. It was fundamentally true. He loved Jackie, and they were perfect for each other.

She looked on her desk. Her mom hadn't chosen to confiscate her Dimensional Scissors.

"… Mirror." She said quietly, "where can I find the reagents Eclipsa used to open the Fate Dimension portal?"


	49. GET IT OVER WITH, ALREADY

Day 23.

Star's hands shook as she carefully replaced the floorboard under her bed, quietly enough that Marco wouldn't hear and wake up.

A small amount of dimensional travel was all it had taken to acquire the components Eclipsa had used. Acquisition of those catalysts had been relatively uneventful―Star couldn't take the mirror with her without arousing Marco's suspicions, but it wasn't like she needed to linger in those foreign places for all that long to begin with―it was mostly the fact that she now had them that unnerved her.

" _I don't need to do this_ " was the thought that ran through her head.

That was the simple truth, right? What did the Speculation even know about it, anyways? If the Mirror is forbidden from talking about the God of Fate, and what he might or might not be able to do, then it wouldn't have contributed its knowledge to the Speculation, right? Therefore, the Speculation had to be based on what Star believed to be true, and she still had no way of knowing that Zemd was telling the truth.

Except…

The Speculation knew everything she did. And it wouldn't have been so confident if it _only_ knew what she knew.

" _Unless the Mirror..._ "

There was one consideration that Star hadn't spent any time parsing. Or, rather, she'd spent a lot of time parsing it, but she'd always kept it in the back of her mind.

How much could they really trust the Mirror?

There were two pieces of evidence. The first was when the Mirror had once chosen to respond to a question that hadn't been directly posed to it. The Mirror wasn't supposed to have any kind of sense of Agency or Agenda: responding to a question not intended for it required both.

The second piece of evidence was when the Mirror stalled on fulfilling Star's request to end the scene, back when they were viewing the events with Lyros, Rina, and Eclipsa. The Mirror passed it off at the time as an unintended latency between receiving the command and executing it, but... Come on. For starters, the Mirror had never had that kind of problem before or since. And furthermore: Star had taken time to reexamine the context of that scene, and realized that if the Mirror _hadn't_ stalled at that exact moment, they very well might have skipped past the stuff involving the cave; or at the very least, it might have taken them longer to reach those scenes.

It was a mounting stack of coincidences. If the Mirror didn't have self-determination, then why was it overriding their orders and queries to try to help them? If it does, then why did it tell them it didn't, and has otherwise tried so hard to maintain the illusion that it doesn't?

Star looked over her bed at the Mirror, still sitting on the end table.

For that matter, _it knows what Star is thinking_ at this moment, doesn't it?

But it harkened back to Eclipsa's strange ability to damage and manipulate the Mirror: it fully well knew that Eclipsa planned to break a part of its abilities in order to secure an advantage against the Artificers, but did nothing to prevent her or make her unable to damage itself, and only made those repairs after she'd already done it. Where's the line between what the Mirror is and isn't allowed to do in the name of upholding its directives? Where's the line between the Mirror exhibiting surprisingly complex artificial intelligence—to the point that it even understands cultural language artifacts like metaphor, idioms, similes, innuendo and hyperbole—and a straight-up admission that the Mirror is (or at least might be) sapient?

None.

Of.

Which.

The Mirror will talk about with her.

That was the infuriating part, at least for Star. These seemed like important questions, and there was literally no way to get answers to any of them.

And now...

Would there ever be?


	50. OH LIKE HE EVEN KNOWS ANY BETTER

Day 22.

Or possibly day 0.

That was how it felt to Star. She'd freshly queried the Mirror for Marco's death that morning, and it reliably reported that he was due to die in 22 days.

But the Mirror couldn't know how likely it was that the God of Fate would accept her offer.

And it couldn't know if that would even work.

She hadn't told anyone. Not Marco, not her parents, not Marco's parents. If they even knew that that was a possible solution, and that she was considering it… Moon would definitely do something drastic. Star knew that, on an instinctive level.

So at this point―

A loud crash shook the room, and Star flinched.

It was storming quite harshly today.

Small balls of hail were pelting the windows and walls. They weren't any larger than coins, even the largest ones, but the noise they made was very loud, to the point that Star was surprised that the thunder she'd just heard had somehow made an impression even against the pelting hail.

Marco was sitting in bed, still wrapped up under the covers. He'd been doing that a lot the last few days.

Certain he was awake, Star sat down next to his bed. "Hey Marco."

He didn't respond.

"Do you want to go get some lunch?" She knew he hadn't eaten breakfast today.

He stirred but didn't say anything.

"What if I brought it to you?"

Still no response.

Star tried to tease him. "Marco, say nothing if you want me to go through your phone!" She grabbed his phone off the nightstand to emphasize her point.

He still didn't respond.

"I'm really going to do it! I know your password!"

Marco continued making no noise.

Star frowned, then looked at his text messages.

He'd had no conversations with anyone in weeks. He hadn't even texted Jackie. And she hadn't texted him either.

Star opened her mouth to talk again, and then closed it without saying anything.

What she wanted to say was that she had a new lead on how to save him.

She was going to continue browsing what Eclipsa had done, and whether Eclipsa ever learned to use Fate Magic again.

She was going to examine what the Artificers had been doing, now that the Mirror no longer had restrictions on what it could and couldn't show them.

And somehow, through that, she was going to find a way to save him.

… And she couldn't say it.

She tried to count the number of times she'd made such a promise to Marco, and how many times she'd done what she'd set out to do, only to realize that it hadn't actually helped them at all.

How could she lay that on him again?

It was all fake.

And stupid.

And pointless.

She got up to wander outside the room. As she left the radius of the Mirror, the Curse returned in full force.

Her feet sloshed through sticky, viscous blood as she wandered the hallways in a daze.

Occasionally she'd see someone―or at least she assumed they were a person―walking through the hallway, crossing paths with her. They'd stop to examine her, gurgling and retching as they did so, and clearly attempting to communicate with her, despite the fact that she couldn't hear what they were saying, or even know who they were.

Someone stopped in front of her and tried to talk to her. As they did so, bile dripped from their appendages and smothered Star, causing her to gasp and cover her face to protect herself from the awful caustic fluid. But she also needed to plug her nose to keep the stench out. She sputtered and coughed and ran past them, trying to fling the fluids off her body.

When she got near the main hall, she began to realize the mistake she'd made. Dozens, possibly close to a hundred Mewmans were in the entrance hall, mostly standing around, but some of them were moving from place to place. Many of them seemed to notice her presence, but as she could only see this by the way their bubbling masses seemed to lurch in place, she could only guess that this was the case.

She tried to force her way past them, but what almost seemed to be a line of them were blocking her path, and as she tried to navigate around them, they began to close in around her.

"Just leave me alone!" Star yelled out.

At this moment, the Mewmans began to click loudly, and a buzzing noise began to fill the room. Many of the larger ones began to spin in place, hurling bile and pus through the air as they did so.

Star tried to back away, but collided with the mass of another Mewman, and felt the disgusting slime on their body adhere itself to her back. She pulled away, and began to try to fling the slime off of herself, but now she was surrounded.

"Get away! Get away from me!"

She wasn't sure if they understood, but they suddenly began to back away from her. But as this happened, two more Mewmans, covered in thousands of tendrils, approached her and gripped her by the arms.

"Let go of me!"

They refused to do so, and she felt herself get picked up into the air and carried back in the direction she'd arrived from. Back up the stairs, and back down the hallway.

As she got near her room, and the effects of the Curse waned, she saw that the Mewmans carrying her were simply two members of the Royal Guard.

And behind them, Moon, with a deep look of concern on her face.

They opened the door to her room and dropped her on the floor.

"Star, what was that?!"

Moon dismissed the guards and stood in the frame of the door.

Star rubbed at the slime on her back, only to discover it wasn't there anymore. "I was just going for a walk."

Moon sighed. "Can't you at least take the Mirror with you? You really upset the people taking shelter in the entrance hall!"

Star cast a glance helplessly in Marco's direction. "I didn't want to disturb him."

"Then at least stay away from the public areas of the Palace, okay?"

"Sure."

Moon began to close the door. About halfway, she looked at Marco, who was still buried under his bedcovers, then to Star, then closed the door entirely.

Star closed her eyes. She walked over to her bed. Then, with her Mewman strength, she grabbed the bed by the bottom of the frame, and screaming loudly, she yanked the frame upwards and flipped the bed over. Still screaming, she tore into the underneath of the frame, gashing up her arm as she broke apart the springs and support beams. She tore into the furniture, trying to reduce it to rubble. Trying to make the damn thing feel pain.

"STAR! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Marco had sat up, and was staring, bewildered, at Star.

Star broke off her violent rampage, and turned to look at Marco. Then, she composed herself. "I'm fixing my bed. I never liked how it felt to sleep on it before. I think this will be much better."

Marco nodded, obviously disbelieving her.

"What do you think? It's so much better now, right?"

He rubbed his eyes with his hands. "Why would you even ask me a question like that, Star?"

"I dunno. I thought maybe we could try to be productive for once." Star said nonchalantly.

Marco glared at her, then rubbed his forehead. "My apologies. I'll try to deal with my imminent mortality in a way that's more conducive to your work from now on."

Star felt her chest tighten. "Marco, I'm sorry. That wasn't what I meant―"

Marco cut her off: "No, Star, I think we both know that's what you meant."

Star clutched at her own hands, unsure what to say next.

"I notice, you know," Marco said, his narrowed eyes still focused on Star. "I notice how you spend so much time fixating on whether I'm happy, or sad, or angry, or… nothing at all." He rolled his eyes. "For a while, it was flattering. But now, it's just a reminder of your shitty 'Hero's Journey' roleplaying."

Star blinked, feeling a heat behind her ears. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sick of it, Star! I'm sick of being reminded, every damn day, that I'm just a prop in this awful quest of yours. A Damsel to get rescued."

"I… Is that what you think is going on here?"

Marco folded his arms. "Then what exactly _is_ going on here, Star? What the hell is the point of all the theatrics? What the hell is the point of going through the motions with all the stuff involving Eclipsa, your little side-adventure to finally fix your kingdom's sins?"

"I'm trying to save you!"

He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Star shook her head, in disbelief at such a ridiculous question. "Because I care about you!"

"BULLSHIT."

Star took a step back, frightened by the volume with which Marco bellowed that response.

"W-What?!"

Marco furrowed his brow. "Don't act like that, Star. You don't care about me."

"I… How could you..."

"You care about me?" He exhaled sharply. "What do people who care about each other do?"

Star tried to speak despite the twisting in her gut. "People who care about each other… They try to help them! They try to heal them when they get hurt! They support them when they're down! Which is what I'm trying to do for you!"

Marco's composure suddenly looked fragile. "And you think this is what I want?" His voice was much softer now.

Star helplessly threw up her arms. "Then what _do_ you want, Marco?"

He grimaced, then lowered his face. "What I want… Is for you to just let me die, already."

* * *

There was a silence that followed his words. The thunder and hail was still pounding the palace, but Star didn't hear any of it.

_Let me die, already._

"Marco… You can't mean that."

"I… Entirely… Mean it, Star." Marco said laboriously, still staring at the floor.

"Marco, look at me when you say that!"

Marco shot his head up, his face covered in tears. "I want you to let me die, Star! Stop torturing me with all this bullshit about trying to save me, even though we both know you can't, accept that I'm a dead man walking, and move on with your life!"

Star's throat choked up as tears began to form in her eyes. "Marco… How could you say something like that?"

"Do you have any idea what it's like, Star? To know exactly when you're going to die? To have to know exactly when it's going to happen, and to know that there's nothing you can do to change it? That there's nothing anyone can do to change it? This is Hell, Star! No… It's worse than Hell."

"But that's..." Star shook her head. "That's not true! There's still―"

"SHUT UP!"

"But…!"

"NO! JUST SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD!"

Star folded her arms around herself.

Marco clutched a hand over his face. "The only words… I want to hear from you, Star, are 'I give up. I can't save you, Marco, and I'm sorry I kept trying to give you false hope.'" He glared at her through his fingers. "Say it, Star."

Star's lip trembled.

"Say it."

Star collapsed to the floor, crying.

"Just say it, a-already." His voice began to tremor.

Her chest heaving, Star forced some words out of her mouth: "I… Can't..."

"Y-You can't what, Star?"

Star shook her head. "I can't… say that…."

Marco let out an exasperated groan. "What do you think you're gaining by dragging this out, Star?"

"Time! Time to think of a solution! Time to think of a better plan!"

"And how much would be enough, Star? It's been almost a month and a half! Some… Three and a half Million Seconds if you were to ask the damn Mirror! We've got half of that left, and you're not any closer to undoing this curse! How hopeless does this have to get before you admit what's been obvious from the start?"

"I don't know!"

"How much longer do I have to suffer while you make pretend like you're actually accomplishing something?"

"I don't know!" Star choked out through sobs.

"Why are you so stubborn? Why can't you just let me die?"

Star stood up, her body running ahead of her mind, and screamed, "because Marco, I'm in―"

There was a massive crash, and a blast of blinding white light. Star saw, practically in slow motion, as the wall adjacent to Marco seemed to give way, as bricks and stones began to cave inwards towards Marco.

Without time to think, she flung herself at him, tackling him out of the way of a large, jagged boulder that was aimed straight at his head. One of the other stray rocks caught her in the leg, causing her to yelp in pain, as they fell onto Marco's bed.

Star spun around to see what had happened: a support beam from higher up the palace, above her bedroom, had collapsed, and the loss of structural integrity had caused the wall to collapse. Several rocks bigger than the both of them combined now sat where Marco had been moments earlier.

She turned back to Marco, who had a startled look on his face. "Marco! Are you okay?"

His eyes swiveled to the debris, then back to Star, who had pinned him down. Then, his expression diminished. "I'm never going to _be_ okay, Star. How do you not get that yet?"

"What?"

He pointed at the opening in the wall, where rain and hail were starting to pour in. "Didn't Eclipsa's journal say stuff like this would start happening?" He closed his eyes. "You should have just let that boulder kill me."

"I couldn't! What about..." She shook her head. "What about the people who love you?"

"I..."

The bedroom door burst open, and Moon ran in, staring mouth agape at the hole in the wall. "Oh my god! Are the two of you okay? I heard the noise..."

Star got up off of Marco. "We got out of the way of the falling rocks." As she stood, she felt a stabbing pain in her shin. "Ow! Almost."

Moon immediately cast a mending spell on Star's leg. "Sit down, that spell needs time to work." As Star sat down on Marco's bed, Moon got to work magicking the support beam back into place, along with the displaced rocks. Then, her eyes briefly glowed as the final rocks slid back into place. Moon turned to the destroyed bed. "What happened to your bed?"

"The storm damaged it as well," Star lied, turning her head away.

Moon sighed and got to work magicking the bed back into its normal state. "Alright. One last thing." She clapped her hands for a brief second, and Star felt the magic associated with a Barrier spell go into place around the wall. "That should keep the wall in place until the storm passes. We'll have some contractors take a look once the storm passes." She turned to Star and Marco. "That must have been terrifying. Do you want to move to a different room?"

Star shook her head. "No. Unless Marco wants to."

Marco shook his head. "I'm fine."

Moon nodded. "Alright, I need to get back. Let me know if anything doesn't seem right."

Once Moon was gone again, Marco slumped in his seat and frowned. "Do you get it, Star? The longer you keep trying to save me, the more likely you get hurt. And I don't want you to get hurt trying to save me. So please… _please…_ Just let me go."

Star didn't respond. She stood up. Her leg still hurt, but the spell had clearly been working. She crossed the room to her newly repaired bed, and laid down on it.

"Star? Come on. Please."

Star curled up, facing away from Marco.


	51. ALL MY HARD WORK, RUINED

Day 21.

Star and Marco didn't speak the whole day.

It was better this way: if Star had stopped to talk to him, it's possible he could have talked her out of it. Out of doing what needed to be done.

It didn't matter that he'd told her to just let him die. He'd know better if he weren't the one dying. He'd know better if he were the one who actually got a choice.

_He'll be glad I did this. Maybe not right away. But he'll come around._

When night came, and Star was certain that Marco was asleep, she snapped her eyes open, and silently crept out of bed. She pulled the floorboard up, and gathered up the components she'd assembled the previous nights into her backpack. She grabbed her wand and her Dimensional Scissors, and with a brief glance at Marco, she opened up a portal, casting the spell to correct her vision as she did so.

* * *

When she stepped into the forest clearing―the same clearing that Eclipsa had used―Star realized that she had seen this place before she ever discovered the Mirror. Time had radically altered the flora of the area since Eclipsa, but it was an area that she had passed through many times when she was off fighting Monsters as a younger teenager.

Remembering what happened with Minos made her stomach twist in knots. She knew she'd never killed any Monsters herself, but now being forced to think about them as more than nameless othered 'enemies' was upsetting, at the very least.

Star shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about those things.

Despite the crawling sensations on her body, Star could at least see what she was doing, and she reached into her backpack to get the catalysts out. She didn't have Eclipsa's talent for carpentry, and simply placed the items on the ground, trusting that Eclipsa's choice to elevate everything was more of a stylistic flourish than a necessary part of the ritual.

The Mirror, at least, seemed to think so: it regarded Eclipsa's method as "NEEDLESSLY COMPLICATED", and "EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT". Once again, trying to ask the Mirror directly "what's a better way to open a portal to the Dimension of Fate" resulted in the Mirror insisting that it was forbidden from discussing such things, but "what's the best way to perform the ritual Eclipsa performed to alter the scissors" yielded a tremendous amount of information.

This new enchantment wasn't one-time-use-only anymore: once performed, the Scissors would permanently gain the ability to open up a portal to the Dimension of Fate―and any dimensions directly associated with the Dimension of Fate. This didn't include all dimensions. There were many more than simply the "conventional dimensions" and the Dimension of Fate. But certainly, it was a more powerful ritual than what Eclipsa had performed.

The other effect was that this new version of the ritual wasn't nearly so theatrical. This was part of what the Mirror considered to be "EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT": the energy wasted in the light show put on by Eclipsa's version of the ritual. Once again, asking a slightly different version of a question was all it took to change its answers.

If she had had more time to work this stuff out, she might have tried to dig into the particulars of that.

Star double-checked the notes she'd transcribed from the Mirror, and then cast the ritual.

The scissors lifted into the air, glowed a faint blue light, and then fell to the ground.

"Hmm." Star vocalized out loud.

This _was_ what she expected to happen when she performed the ritual, but it was still underwhelming.

She picked up the scissors, and found them warm to the touch.

She cut open a portal back to her room.

* * *

After dismissing the spell altering her vision, Star realized she'd left the reagents behind. She then shrugged it off. " _It's not like those things are good for anything else_ ," she reasoned.

Star held up the Scissors.

She could go at any time. There was nothing stopping her. This will save Marco. The longer she waits, the less likely it'll work.

Star held the scissors out in front of herself, ready to cut open the portal.

A minute passed.

Half an hour passed.

Star began to pace the room, nervously sweating.

_Come on, Star! You don't have a choice! You know, deep down, that this is the only way to save Marco's life!_

She made a swiping motion with her arm, but didn't use the motion that would have actually opened up the portal.

_Stop chickening out! Just do it already!_

She froze when she saw Marco's sleeping form out of the corner of her eye.

And slowly, it dawned on her why she couldn't do it.

… _I haven't even told him goodbye._

She felt a lump form in her throat, as tears welled in her eyes.

_But if I tell him… He'll try to stop me. I might even let him._

She shook her head.

_No matter what, he deserves to know the truth._

Star pocketed the scissors. She sat down in front of her desk, and using her wand to generate the faintest light that she could still see with, she opened up her journal to a blank page, and began to write.

_Dear Marco…_

* * *

Star folded up the letter and tucked it underneath of the Mirror, sitting on the end table.

She glanced out the window. It was very nearly morning now; she could already see the sky brightening.

She stood over Marco's sleeping form.

And, careful not to wake him, she learned down and kissed him on the cheek.

"Goodbye, Marco."

Star set her wand down on her pillow. Wherever she was going, it would be pretty bad if she took the Wand and couldn't get it back home.

Then, once more, she stood near her bed, holding the Scissors in front of herself.

_Come on, Star. Get it over with, already._

Tears began running down her cheeks again.

She steadied her hand holding the scissors, using her other hand.

And delicately,

She opened up the portal.

Once again, the strange portal appeared before her, with gossamer golden strands of energy ebbing through the air. Fortunately, it didn't make a sound as it did this.

Star raised up her foot to step through, then looked at the Scissors.

_I'm not going to need those either where I'm going. And if I take them with me, it'll tempt me to chicken out._

She carefully angled the scissors above the portal. She couldn't remember where she'd seen this trick before, but the idea was that it would close the portal behind her without her needing to do so manually on the other side.

Then, she stepped through the portal, until only her hand was sticking out of it. She quickly let go of the scissors and pulled her hand through, as the scissors fell, closing the portal behind her.

The scissors clattered to the ground, just underneath of Star's bed.

* * *

Star wasn't quite certain what she should have expected in the Dimension of Fate, but she was definitely certain that it wasn't… This.

At first, it was like she had walked into a black void. But then, as her eyes adjusted, she saw that she was standing on a translucent road in the void. The road was a faint, beige color, and seemed to be composed of millions of faint wisps of energy, slowly flowing in one direction. Around her, massive columns, also made of millions upon millions of wisps of energy, but these were a yellow-ish green color, and the wisps seemed to flow in a circular direction around the pillars.

Star looked around: the road only extended in a single direction. And beyond her immediate surroundings, she couldn't see anything else. Treading carefully, she walked up to the edge of the side of the road and knelt down to touch it with her hand. She could feel resistance, but it didn't feel like she was touching anything at all. She reached over the edge and saw that there was no resistance wherever there wasn't anything there. She pulled a button off of her outfit and dropped it over the edge, and followed it with her eyes until she couldn't see it anymore. "So I can probably fall off this thing," she said, quietly.

She stood up again and centered herself on the road. She folded her arms around herself and followed the road. Eventually, a new object began to form in front of her: A large, circular platform. This was a much deeper shade of green, possibly even blue, and massive in size, to the point she couldn't see the other edge.

There was a gap between the road and the platform. Star couldn't just walk across: she built up a running start and leaped over the gap, landing silently on the platform.

As she walked forwards on the platform, she could hear a strange, authoritative voice in front of her. It was decidedly male, and seemed to echo slightly, even as Star saw nothing it could possibly be echoing against.

"―lets emotion control her and dictate everything she does. Doesn't she see how much better it would be if she would let rationality take over? How all of this could have been avoided if she had sat down and simply considered a different perspective? How her hysterics are literally tearing up everything that matters? How―"

As she got closer, she could see a figure. Unlike the rest of the world, he clearly wasn't made out of energy―or at least not in the same way that everything else did. He looked like a middle-aged Mewman man. He had long white hair that flowed smoothly down his back, and wore a bright, acid-green cloak that seemed incongruous with everything else in the area (which, ironically, made him fit in). "Excuse me?" She called out.

He stopped talking, and turned to look at Star. Star could barely make out from this distance his appearance: his eyes were red, and he had a disfigured face―though when he saw her, his face changed into a surprised expression. "Oh. That's interesting." He said quietly, his voice still reverberating in the air.

"What?" Star asked.

"It would seem we have a guest."

* * *

Day 20.

Marco stirred from his slumber.

Rolling around, he glanced in Star's direction.

… only to see she wasn't in bed anymore.

He looked around the room, and didn't see her anywhere.

He sighed, laying back against his pillow.

He wanted to apologize for what he had said. Yesterday, things were too awkward to bring it up, and he still wasn't sure what he wanted to say.

It was just frustrating. That's all he wanted to express. Telling her to give up on him, to let him die… That was the depression talking. He didn't mean it.

_Great. She's wandering around again without the Mirror. Super._

He slowly got up out of bed, and rose to his feet. Crossing the room, he grabbed the Mirror off the end table.

He didn't see the note.

_Maybe I'll see her on my way to breakfast._

He slowly trudged out of the room, barely paying any attention to how he looked. As he entered the cafe, he observed that no one else was eating in here at the moment. There were a few servants clearly on standby for anyone who did enter (like himself) but no one ready to eat.

He walked up to a table and one of the servants pulled out a chair for him.

"That's okay," he said slowly, still tired, "you don't need to do that for me."

The servant smiled at him. "At the rate they pay us, I'm happy to do it anyways," she said.

"Fair enough."

The servant was about to leave, when Marco called to her. "Oh, by the way!"

"Yes? She said, turning around.

"Has Star been through here already?"

"I don't recall seeing her."

Marco nodded. "I figured." He glanced at the Mirror. "I doubt she'd come here without this thing anyways. Thanks."

She bowed and left as another Servant dropped off a tray of food in front of Marco.

He slowly chewed on the Mewman toast. It had a texture quite unlike what he was used to on Earth. Not in a bad way, just very different.

In his head, he tried to iterate on how he would talk to Star when he saw her.

_Star, I'm sorry I said those things. You're my friend, and I think it's wonderful that you care so much about me. Please don't stop trying to help me. You're the only person I have left who understands―_

A loud lurching noise, originating from the Mirror, deafened him, and Marco slammed his hands over his ears. The next second, the masking effects of the Mirror cut out entirely, and the horrific gory, blood-soaked world of the Curse returned to his senses.

He picked up the Mirror, and asked, "hey, what gives? Why'd you turn the masking effects off?"

The Mirror gave an immediate response, one he didn't recognize:

"ERROR 00000001 DEVICE_NOT_CALIBRATED: THIS DEVICE WILL REFUSE TO FUNCTION IF IT HAS NOT BEEN CALIBRATED WITHIN 3,600,000 SECONDS. PLEASE CALIBRATE DEVICE BEFORE USE. WARNING: CAUSAL ANALYSIS REQUIRES REPEATED AND REGULAR RECALIBRATION. FAILURE TO PROPERLY CALIBRATE WILL LEAD TO MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN READINGS AND ANALYSIS. PLEASE DO NOT PERFORM REPEATED CAUSAL ANALYSIS ON DEVICE WITHOUT IMMEDIATELY RECALIBRATING, UNLESS YOU ARE AN ADVANCED USER AND UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS. RECALIBRATION IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT ESSENTIAL, WHEN PERFORMING NON-CAUSAL ANALYSIS."

Marco blinked. "What?! What is calibration?"

"CALIBRATION ASSIMILATES ALL KNOWN CHRONOLOGICAL AND SPACIAL DATA INTO THIS DEVICE'S DATABASE TABLES."

"Okay, fine, I… Wait. Show me the previous error message again."

"ERROR 00000001 DEVICE_NOT_CALIBRATED…"

Marco stared at the message closely.

_THIS DEVICE WILL REFUSE TO FUNCTION IF IT HAS NOT BEEN CALIBRATED WITHIN 3,600,000 SECONDS._

Some mental math later, and Marco worked out that the last time the Mirror was calibrated must have been back when they first acquired it. The day they returned from the cave.

_CAUSAL ANALYSIS REQUIRES REPEATED AND REGULAR RECALIBRATION. FAILURE TO PROPERLY CALIBRATE WILL LEAD TO MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN READINGS AND ANALYSIS. PLEASE DO NOT PERFORM REPEATED CAUSAL ANALYSIS ON DEVICE WITHOUT IMMEDIATELY RECALIBRATING…_

"Wait… We were supposed to be recalibrating you every time we asked you something about the future?!"

"ERROR 00000001 DEVICE_NOT_CALIBRATED..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, but..."

He was wide awake now. For what felt like the first time in weeks.

"Calibrate yourself, now."

"NOW CALIBRATING. 0.0000."

He looked around the still-extremely-cursed room, then back at the Mirror.

"NOW CALIBRATING. 0.0178."

"At least it's pretty quick."

When the Mirror finished calibrating, the room immediately snapped back into its normal state.

Marco sniffed the food to make sure it was once more edible, and took a bite. "Okay, so let me get this straight: we were supposed to calibrate you every single time we asked you to predict the future?!"

"IT IS STRICTLY ADVISED THAT A USER DO SO, BUT THERE'S NO REQUIREMENT TO DO SO."

"I..." Marco groaned. "Couldn't you have warned us about that?"

"A USER PRIOR TO YOU REQUESTED THAT THIS DEVICE DISABLE AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATIONS REGARDING THE CALIBRATION PROCESS AND THE DEGREE TO WHICH THIS DEVICE'S CAUSAL ANALYSIS MIGHT BE OUT OF SYNC WITH THE REAL-TIME DATA."

"Who did that?! Was it Eclipsa?"

"NO. IT WAS A USER PRIOR TO HER."

He groaned.

_Wait._

_If the… Causal Analysis… Up until now have all been inaccurate…_

Marco's voice trembled. "Mirror. What are the odds I'm going to die in 20 days?"

His eyes widened when he saw the answer.

"Wha―What about the odds that I survive to adulthood?!"

He audibly gasped when the Mirror responded.

Marco shoved the toast into his mouth, forced himself to swallow, and bolted up from his seat. "STAR! STAR, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

* * *

"Who… Are you?" Star asked trepidatiously.

He narrowed his eyes at Star. "I'll forgive your ignorance. Once."

Star backed away slightly. "I'm sorry. How would I even know who you are? I don't think we've met before."

"Star Butterfly, I think we both know that you're smarter than that," he said, crossing his arms.

Star threw up her arms in frustration. "I don't know… Are you the God of Fate?"

He sighed. "Is that what they call me these days?"

"Maybe? Why are you―"

"Yes." He responded, cutting her off. "I am the God of Fate, therefore, you can simply refer to me as Fate. It is the most fitting name in your language."

"Okay, Fate." Star swallowed. "You already know my name. Then you must also already know why I'm here."

"Indeed. And the answer is No."

Star shook as he said this. "What?"

"I will not exchange your friend's life for yours."

Star blinked. _He won't even consider it! Did I come here too late?_

"You won't even hear what I have to say?"

"I don't care," Fate retorted, and turned to open up what appeared to be a console in the air in front of himself.

"I… Hang on a second!"

Fate sighed, and turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. "What?"

"I have to save his life! This is the only way I know how! If you won't accept my life, then would you accept something else? My wand? My dimensional scissors? The Mirror?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You would dare offer me the Iris as payment?"

Star's eyes widened. "Yes! If that would be enough!"

"The Iris, which your ancestor stole from me. You would offer stolen goods as payment for a service rendered?"

Star felt a cold shiver run down her back. "I… Wasn't aware she stole it. I..." Star slowly realized the truth. "I hadn't even thought about how she had acquired it. I knew she came here, but..."

"Eclipsa trespassed on my property and stole the Iris, my most valuable of possessions. The Iris, which I forged with my own Mana." He glared at Star.

"Oh… okay. Then what if I returned it to you? Would you make a deal with me then?"

"No."

"But…!" Star almost felt a bit insulted. "How badly do you want Marco to die?!"

Fate sighed. "Is that what you think this is about?"

Star glanced to the side. "The Artificer described it as some kind of deal made with you. That they offer you someone's soul in exchange for their own release from existence. So souls must be valuable to you, right? Well, I'm a princess, someday fated to be queen! Are you seriously telling me that you'd rather have Marco's soul than mine, even with extra payment on top of that?"

Fate began to walk away from her, beckoning her to follow him. "Star Butterfly. Do you know what my business is, as God of Fate?"

"I… I don't." Star followed a short distance behind him

"Order. The Order of the Universe itself. That is my grand, noble task, for which I was granted my divinity. That is the purpose of the Strings of Fate, which I alone have the authority to create and manipulate, and which have laid down the final days of your friend, who is destined to die in 20 days." He turned to face her as he kept walking, and said, "what you are asking me to do is a violation of that directive. If I interfere to save his life, even taking your life as payment, I would disrupt the natural order of the Universe. That is, to put it succinctly, intolerable."

As they walked, Star noticed that a large structure was slowly becoming visible in the distance. "Okay, but him dying is already a disturbance in the order of the Universe, isn't it?"

He stopped walking. "How do you arrive at such a conclusion?"

"The only reason Marco is dying..." Star balled up her fists. "… Is because Eclipsa stole the Mirror from you. She took possession of the Fate Mana that was contained within the Mirror, and tried to use it to change the order of the Universe herself. She tried to use it to punish the Artificers for their horrible crimes. Marco wouldn't be fated to die if she hadn't done that, all those years ago."

He narrowed his eyes. "Interesting."

"So, I mean..." Star placed her arms around herself. "Technically, restoring the Universe to order would mean finding a way where neither of us die. Where the mangled Strings that Eclipsa created were destroyed, right?"

"You have a very strange logic," Fate said, as he continued walking towards the structure.

"But I'm right, aren't I?!"

"The Universe is naturally re-ordering, under normal circumstances. Eclipsa's actions were worrisome and potentially catastrophic, but in the time since, the Universe repaired the incidental damage. As far as I'm concerned, the Universe's order is more threatened by any attempts to further induce artificial alterations of the Strings."

Star furrowed her brow. "Then what even is your job, then? If the Universe orders itself, then how is your job to 'keep the Universe ordered'?"

Fate stopped in front of the structure. "My job," he said, turning to Star, "is to oversee that process. And to step in if something―or someone―is disrupting things."

* * *

"Star!" Marco shouted again. "Where could she have… Mirror!" He said, addressing the Mirror. "Where did Star go?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Marco felt a cold sensation spread through his body. "What… Do you mean? Where is she?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM―"

"No, I… ARGH! Try to understand what I'm saying! Why is she not here right now?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN―"

"Damn it!" Marco ran up to the bedroom, and looked at her bed. "Okay, her wand is still here, so… Wait. You're 'forbidden' from answering… Does that mean she's in the Dimension of Fate? Where Eclipsa got you from?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN―"

"Come on! How do I…!"

Marco spotted the letter sitting on the end table, where the Mirror had been sitting when he woke up.

* * *

"It's still contradictory!"

Fate folded his arms. "I don't see it that way."

"How do you not? No matter how you look at it, the Artificer messed with the order of the universe when she cursed me and Marco. That was just over a month ago! Or what, the order of the Universe could suffer that upset, but fixing it is too tall a task for you to service? Cursing my best friend to die is a tolerable mistake, but helping him live is too grievous an act to allow?!"

Fate didn't respond, he simply stared at Star.

"Well?"

He turned to look at the Structure. "I wouldn't expect a Mortal to understand."

Star shut her eyes in frustration. She then looked at the Structure: it was a massive, towering column of interconnected strands and points, reaching well beyond what she could see. "What is this?"

"The Map." Fate said, simply. "Every single String, in the entire Universe, visible to even the fragile and clouded senses of a Mortal."

Star's eyes widened, overlooking his insult. "Where am I in that map?"

"You aren't. You've entered a realm outside the bounds of the Universe. Your strings are still present in the Universe, but they will not reappear in this map until such a time that you are part of the Universe again."

"What about Marco? Can we see him on this map?"

Fate narrowed his eyes briefly, then turned to the structure and held up his hands. The interconnected strands began to rotate rapidly and recede away. Eventually, it focused on a single point, with a large number of strands connected to it.

Most of the Strands were white in color. Two of them were a light green color. One was a deep pink color, and noticeably seemed to end abruptly in mid space, unlike the others, which extended out beyond the range of Star's vision. Another was a red color, not limited in size.

Then, there was a mass of Strands, a deep swampy-greenish-blue color, leading nowhere and tied around each other, and wrapped around all of the other Strands.

_The Curse._

"You could do it, right?"

"Hmm?" Fate glanced at Star.

"The Curse is already attached to both of us… You'd just have to unravel the curse from him, and wrap it around me. That would cause me to die, and him to live. And it wouldn't change the order of the universe at all. One of us has to die… Why does it have to be him?"

Fate sighed again. "Why is it so important to you that you die instead of him?"

Star balled up her hand into a fist and brought it to her chest. "Because… I love him. And… I also know that he'll never love me back. Not the way that I love him. He has someone he loves, and who loves him back." She lowered her head. "And on top of all that, I'm the reason he's dying. So of the two of us, he has more to live for than I do. And he's the one who better deserves to live."

Fate raised an eyebrow, and began carefully examining the String Map.

"I was told that I'd have to offer you some kind of collateral on top of all this, to convince you to switch the Strings around. So… I was going to offer my life right at this moment. You'd take my life, and in return, free Marco from the curse. I don't know the mechanism for it, but you could do that, couldn't you?"

"There's a quite significant consideration that you haven't addressed, Star Butterfly," Fate said, turning back to her.

"And what would that be, exactly?"

"If I do nothing, I still get exactly what I want."

* * *

_Dear Marco._

_First of all, I want to say I'm sorry. For a lot of things, really. For getting you cursed. For always dragging you into dangerous situations. For every way I've ruined your life since we met. I don't stop to think about the consequences for my actions. I don't stop to think whether I've done the right thing or not. And every time I didn't think about those things, I've hurt you._

_Despite all that, I know you care about me. Which is why what's about to happen next is going seem unconscionable to you. But I finally found a way out, and I'm going to take it._

_I'm going to trade my life for yours. The God of Fate can make that deal, and the sooner I go, the more likely he'll accept. So that's why I haven't stuck around to tell you in person. I definitely didn't want to tell you like this. But the truth is, I'm not brave enough to tell you in person. Actually, if I had been brave enough to tell you in person… I don't know. I guess a part of me thinks all of this could have been avoided. That maybe I could have prevented it._

_I mean, that's what this all comes down to, doesn't it? If I hadn't gotten stupid when we were seeing hallucinations, I wouldn't have hurt Jackie. If I hadn't gotten obsessed with finding stupid artifacts like the Mirror, I wouldn't have gotten you cursed in the first place. We wouldn't have lost that month, or the weeks we've lost since, tortured by this curse, and trying in vain to undo it._

_I need to make this clear to you, because I know you're going to try to blame yourself for this. Don't. All of this is my fault. I'm the one who deserves punishment for it, not you. And it has to be one of us. I've looked at this every way possible. It's only you, or me. And I'm not going to burden you with this choice. Not after everything you've been through. If I made you make this choice yourself, it would agonize and torment you, and even if you made the right choice, you'd punish yourself every single day afterward, doubting your own judgment. I'm sparing you the guilt._

_So I've decided it's going to be me. I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago, and finally take responsibility for my own actions. This is the right thing to do. I definitely don't want this, but I don't really have a choice. So if it seems like I'm okay with that, it's only because I've resigned myself to this fate. There's no other way. You know this, I know this. There's no other way._

_What I want, more than anything else, Marco, is for you to go back to Jackie once the curse is gone. Tell her that there's nothing holding you back from treating her the way she deserves anymore. Help her with her personal problems. Live a happy life with her. Finally achieve your dreams. That's all I really want. And you can hate me if you want. That's fine. Because when you're not hating me, you'll be happy. And even when you are hating me, you'll be alive. And even as you hate what I did, you'll cherish the life you've gained back. I know you will. That's good enough for me. I know that if it were you instead… I would never have been happy._

_That's the other thing you need to understand about me, Marco. In every way that matters to me, you're the only person that really matters to me. If you die, I die too. Maybe not physically, but in every other respect, I'd be dead. I finally understand why the adult version of me had no blush stickers anymore: because without you, everything I am, everything I'll ever be is gone. But if you live, and I die… I know you'll make it without me. You have the love of your life. You'll be happy._

_You don't need to worry―or, at any rate, there's nothing else for you to do. I'm going to sign myself over to the God of Fate, and once I've done that, the curse should begin to dissipate from you. I'll finish everything. And once I have, this nightmare will finally be over, and then you won't have to see or think about me ever again._

_Goodbye, Marco. You were the greatest, bestest friend a girl could ever wish for, and my only regret is that I never treated you with the respect and support you deserved._

― _Star_

_PS: One last thing._

_Don't try to stop me._

* * *

"So that's why I'm offering my life in advance. Maybe it's not much to you, but it's everything to me." Star folded her arms around herself. "I don't have anything else that could possibly be of value to you. But this is what I want. And I want to believe that you have the necessary goodness within you to accept this offer."

Fate sighed. "The terms you seek to have me agree to is that I will alter the Strings comprising the Curse bound to Marco to have their root attach to you instead. Then, I will have the activity of those Strings accelerated, terminating your life promptly afterwards, unraveling the corrupt Strings and restoring proper order to the Universe, at least insofar as these Strings have negatively affected it. Do you dispute any of this?"

Star shook her head, feeling numb. "No, all of that is correct."

Fate turned back to the map to continue examining the Strings attached to Marco.

Star shuffled awkwardly in place. "Uh, so…?"

Fate narrowed his eyes as he rotated the map to examine the Strings from every angle. "Okay."

"What?"

He turned his head to Star. "I think we can make a deal."

* * *

Marco felt lightheaded.

_Star, you idiot. You caring, selfless, idiot._

"When did she write this letter?"

"EARLY THIS MORNING, APPROXIMATELY 3600 SECONDS AGO."

"Why didn't I apologize to her sooner? Why didn't I try to talk to her? God, I am so STUPID!"

Marco looked at the letter again.

"Why would she do something like this, just for me? Why would she think I'm worth that kind of sacrifice? It should be the other way around! She's a princess, for god's sake, my worth can't possibly stack up against that!"

Marco didn't see the response that the Mirror printed out.

"Okay, Mirror: when did Star cease to be in this universe?" He asked, carefully wording his question so as not to interfere with what the Mirror could and couldn't talk about.

"APPROXIMATELY 2400 SECONDS AGO."

"Okay, then I still have time, right? Wait..." His eyes widened. "What are the odds that both myself and Star survive to adulthood?"

He grimaced at the response on the Mirror.

"Alright. I have to find a way to follow her. To stop her from doing this. She would have taken her scissors, right?"

He didn't intend for the Mirror to answer that, but he got an answer anyways: "NO. HER SCISSORS ARE SITTING BELOW HER BED."

Marco blinked, then looked under her bed. He ran to the other side of her bed and knelt down to pick up the scissors. They had an unusual weight that they didn't have before. "Are… Are these still enchanted?"

"THE SCISSORS HAVE A RITUAL ON THEM ALLOWING ACCESS TO DIMENSIONS NOT NORMALLY ACCESSIBLE BY DIMENSIONAL SCISSORS."

"Including the Dimension of Fate?!"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUERY."

"Ugh. Fine, whatever. There's only one way to know for sure, then!" He raised up the scissors to try to cut open the portal, when he saw that the text on the Mirror had changed.

"MARCO DIAZ. YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS DEVICE WITH YOU THROUGH THE PORTAL."

He blinked at the Mirror. "… What?"

"WHEREVER IT IS THAT YOU ARE GOING, YOU SHOULD LEAVE THIS DEVICE BEHIND BEFORE GOING THERE."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "I… Why would you tell me that?"

The Mirror didn't respond.

Marco cautiously set the Mirror down on Star's desk. He then raised the scissors back up. "Star, please just wait. Don't make this mistake."

He cut open the portal and stepped through.

* * *

"Marco will live a normal, healthy life?"

"As normal as is possible for Earthlings. Even one such as him, aware of alternate dimensions and having had exposure to them."

Star felt her whole body trembling. "But he'll live to be an adult? He'll live to meet his grandkids and great-grandkids?"

Fate narrowed his eyes. "Much of that depends on him. It's difficult for me to make an exact analysis without my Iris..." He had a dark expression on his face for a brief moment. "But I imagine that if he were to reduce his Nachos consumption, it would certainly favor the odds that he lives to meet his descendents."

"That's..." Star looked down into the void below her.

"Do you understand and accept these terms, Star Butterfly?" Fate asked, a stolid expression on his face, as he extended his hand.

Star closed her eyes.

Marco was going to live.

Finally, after all of this, after everything, it was going to be worth it.

The last Artificer was already dead; there wasn't any clean-up left there.

Whatever mysteries were left behind by Eclipsa's experiments and her legacy… It didn't matter anymore.

Star could feel her heart pounding. Seconds after she takes this deal, that might cease to be.

_This will kill me._ Star thought.

But Marco would be saved.

Her whole body shook violently, and Star felt like she was going to be sick. It wouldn't last much longer, but at the moment, it petrified her.

What about her mom and dad? Her kingdom, her people? Star gritted her teeth. Did any of them understand what she was going through? The kind of decision she had to make? That she had no choice _but_ to make?

None of them understood this kind of decision. The decision to sacrifice yourself for someone else. So what they wanted didn't matter.

Marco mattered.

Star opened her eyes, and raised up her hand. "I―"

"STOP!"

Star felt her stomach knot. She knew that voice.

She turned around, and saw Marco running towards her. Her scissors were clutched in one of his hands.

Fate blinked several times in confusion, and turned to look at the Map. "It would seem we have another guest. I suspect you'll need to confer with him before you make your decision."

"Marco! I..." Star looked down, towards the void. "I told you not to come here."

Marco caught up to them and began to gasp for breath. "You… You..."

"Marco, I know that―"

Marco suddenly ran up to her and slapped her in the face. Star stumbled backwards, surprised. "What?!"

"You… IDIOT!"

"I… Excuse me?!"

"Why would you try to do something like this? Killing yourself to save me… Are you out of your mind?"

Star tried to steel herself. "Marco, I didn't have a choice! I explained it to you in that letter! Of the two of us, you're the one who actually has stuff to live for. You're the one who has a reason to keep on living." Star grasped at her shoulder. "You have Jackie."

Marco stared disbelievingly at Star, apparently baffled by what she was saying. "Wait, you..." He groaned. "Oh my god, you don't even..."

"What?"

"Jackie and I broke up!"

"What?!" Star felt like she'd just been zapped by a defibrillator. "When?! Why?!"

"It was..." Marco's voice suddenly got melancholic. "It was when she got released to go back to Earth. She told me that… With the situation she was in, it was too painful to try to deal with her own problems while also trying to emotionally support me." He folded his arms around himself.

Star breathed quietly as Marco finished explaining this. "Marco… That sucks."

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "But don't you understand? If I do this… You'd get to live. And then you'd be able to go back to her."

Marco stamped his foot down, an action which didn't make any noise because of the nature of the floor below them. "Stop talking like that! You said you were going to find a way to save us both, didn't you? Why'd you give up on that?"

"You already said it, Marco! There's no way to save you! And thanks to him," she said, gesturing to Fate, who was still staring at the Map, "I know now why: because there's no way to save us both. One of us has to die. There's no way around that. So just let me do this for you, Marco. Let me finally do something good for you."

"You think this is good for me?! How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing stuff like this! Why would you even be willing to sacrifice yourself for me?"

"Because I'd be lost without you!" Star screamed, tears forming in her eyes.

Marco bared his teeth. "And you don't think it's the same for me, Star? Did you ever stop to think how much it would destroy me if you died? If you died just to save my life? You think your life isn't worth living if I'm not around… What about me, huh? What part of my life do you think is worth living if you're not around?!"

Star gasped as she saw tears form in his eyes.

"Don't you know how I feel?"

Star choked out a few sobs. "It doesn't matter, Marco. It's going to be one of us. There's no way to―"

"ZERO-POINT-ZERO-NINE-SEVEN-ONE!" Marco bellowed.

Star stiffened. "Wait… What?"

"I asked the Mirror before coming here, Star! _**The Odds that Both of Us Survive to Adulthood!**_ "

Star gasped. "What?!"

Behind her, she also heard Fate speak. "What?"

She turned to him. He had a very surprised expression on his face, but quickly composed himself and returned to looking at the Map.

"Are you..." Star furrowed her brow, turning back to Marco. "You're not messing with me, are you? You're not lying, just to get me to stop, are you?"

"Star. Were you calibrating the Mirror at all?"

"Calibrating, what's..."

Star remembered.

Eclipsa had to calibrate the Mirror the first time she used it, didn't she? That's why, that first time they were looking at her using the Mirror, she was just sitting there, not doing anything.

But then she remembered something else.

The first time she tried to use the Mirror, it complained that it needed to be calibrated.

And…

Something else?

A warning, about how…

Star's eyes widened, as she slowly gasped. "Wait… This whole time…"

Marco smiled through his tears. "Don't you get it, Star? You were making progress this whole time! It was slow, and small, and you weren't seeing it, but after everything you've been doing, you've changed the future! There's now a possible future where both of us live. There's an actual chance to save us both! The Mirror just wasn't calibrated properly to see how you'd changed the future."

Star's mouth hung open. Then, she collapsed to her knees. "That's… I… Then. There's still hope." She looked up at Marco, smiling through her tears. "There's still hope that you can be saved."

Marco nodded, smiling. "There's still hope, Star, and it's because of you." He reached out his hand to her.

Star grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up, into a hug.

At that moment, Star began sobbing furiously into Marco's shoulder, no longer able to compose herself. She could hear him doing the same.

"I've―I've been lying to you, Marco."

Marco ran his hand through her hair. "What do you mean?"

"How many times did I tell you to not give up, because I was certain that I would find a solution? How many times did I insist that there was something we were going to find that would change everything? The truth is, Marco… I was certain that there was nothing I could do to save you. I was certain that this all really was pointless and useless. I just… I don't even remember whether I was saying all that stuff to convince you, or convince myself. I just know that… Marco…"

"I know."

"If there really is a chance… If something has changed, if there really is a way to save you…"

"… You know it's fake, right?"

* * *

Star stopped sobbing as she heard Fate speak. She turned to face him. "W-What?"

Fate continued to stare at the Map. "The Iris is giving you false hope. For reasons that are beyond your comprehension."

Star wiped her eyes. "Why would the Mirror lie to us?"

Fate raised an eyebrow. "Hasn't it done that before, to you?"

"I… It hasn't before… has it?"

Fate made a non-committal shrug.

Marco tapped Star on the shoulder. "Star, don't listen to him. He's just trying to get you to take the deal. If you take the deal, it's guaranteed that you die. Without the deal, there's a chance we're both saved. He's just trying to manipulate you."

Fate scoffed. "I'm aware you weren't here for most of our conversation, _boy_ , but I didn't intend to offer any deal in the first place. The fact is, I don't actually care whether your friend accepts the deal we carefully negotiated. It makes no difference to me, in the long term. She was insistent that me accepting her offer was how I could prove I wasn't an amoral monster, and I decided to indulge her." He shot a nasty look at Marco. "I'm not the bad guy, here."

"You were going to accept her offer under false pretenses! You knew fully well that the probabilities had changed, and that my circumstances had changed too!"

Fate rolled his eyes. "I maintain knowledge of the Strings across the entire Universe, but I'm not omniscient. I didn't personally analyze each of your Strings before your arrival here. So I'm sorry if I have better things to do than pay attention to your problems." The sarcasm was hard to miss. "And on the subject of probabilities..." He turned to face Marco directly. "Why don't you hand over my Iris?"

Marco blinked. "I didn't bring it with me."

Fate narrowed his eyes and touched his hand to his forehead. "Of course you didn't. Because why would you be smart enough to bring it with you. It's not like your case for convincing your little friend here to back out of her own deal hinged on evidence provided by that device. Gosh, it's such an absurd idea, to want to bring it along to prove you're not crazy. Mortals are so useless."

Marco bared his teeth. "I didn't bring it with me... because..." Slowly, his expression faded, until he had a neutral expression on his face.

Fate raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Star paid close attention to Marco's facial expression. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, but it was pretty clear he'd just realized something important.

"… I forgot to. I was in a hurry, trying to find Star's scissors, and it didn't occur to me to bring it until after I got here."

Fate stared at Marco for a few seconds. Then, without saying a word, he turned back to face the Map.

Marco growled under his breath, then took Star's hand. "Come on. Let's go home."

Fate continued to look at the Map. "I look forward to seeing at least one of the two of you."

Marco opened up the portal, and both he and Star stepped through.

Star looked around her room.

The room was exactly how she left it.

But everything felt different.

Marco walked over to the desk and picked up the Mirror. "Mirror. Calibrate yourself."

The room turned gory once more.

Star blinked. "Wait, did you have to do that _now_? It's going to take―"

The Mirror displayed "CALIBRATION COMPLETE." The room returned to normal.

"What? The Mirror took hours to calibrate the first time!"

"TIME TO PERFORM CALIBRATION IS APPROXIMATELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE DURATION OF TIME THAT HAS PASSED SINCE THE MOST RECENT PRIOR CALIBRATION."

Marco handed the Mirror to Star. "Ask it."

Star held up the Mirror, her hand shaking. "Mirror. What are the odds that Marco and I survive to adulthood?"

Her eyes widened as she saw the response: "0.1213."

Marco looked. "It's gone up!"

Star let out a soft laugh. "Well how about that."

She began laughing and crying at the same time, as she clung to Marco.

* * *

**~~A Note From the Author~~**

**There will be no update on June 28, 2017 or July 2nd, 2017. Regular Updates will resume on July 5th, 2017.**

**~~A Note From the Author~~**


	52. REGROUPING

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

**Hello! I'm checking in to remind you of a very important fact, one which I suspect a lot of you don't always think about. But like the good friend that I am, I want to help you keep track of the things you forget and the reasons why those things are important.**

**You are going to die someday.**

**Just think about that for a second. You've got all these plans for your future, right? Well, tomorrow, you'll be leaning against a bridge, and at that exact moment, the load will finally stress the supports on the railing to the point that the railing gives out, you plummet head-first into the ground below, and you die. Just like that.**

**Your friends won't scream. That's the thing no one realizes about death: people don't actually scream in horror when they see someone die. In real life, they get quiet. Sometimes they don't even cry. It's not that they aren't horrified or aren't upset, but rather, that they're so upset that their psychological response becomes aberrant. Even if they understand what just happened, their emotional response lags behind.**

**So you'll be lying there. Ambulances will pick up your body, but of course, your brain is a slurry of blood, brain tissue, and bone fragments, and hope has long since ceased for you. Your parents, if they're still alive, will get a phone call. They'll be told that their child has died. They, on the other hand, might scream. See, they didn't actually see you die, they've simply been told that you died. That's going to create a different kind of cognitive dissonance, where they are actively hostile towards whomever is giving them this information. Subconsciously skeptical that the person on the other end of the phone is being honest with them. That'll drive them to rage.**

**Of course, your parents might have long since died, in which case, the people notified will be your kids. They might cry if they're young enough, but they won't scream. Kids have pretty muted reactions to learning their parents are dead.**

**Or maybe you don't have kids. In that case, your significant other will be alerted. They'll be devestated. But in a few years, they'll be dating someone else. They'll move on and find someone else to care about.**

**Or maybe you don't have anyone in your life who loves you. Which means you'll die alone and unloved. Which is unsurprising: lots of people die that way.**

**The point is: you're going to die.**

**That's all! As always, thanks for reading this story! I love you all!**

**~~A Note From the Author~~**

* * *

"Okay. We've got at least a few things we need to straighten out."

Star placed the Mirror down on the floor between herself and Marco, speaking in a tone that was ever-so-slightly more hostile than she intended.

She tried to calm herself down, but found that her whole body was still shaking.

"I don't know if you've been lying to us, or if you just think these weird half-truths are some kind of clever way to not call it lying, but either way, you've been deceiving us."

Marco sat on the other side of the Mirror and folded his arms.

"For starters: Calibration. You've changed the probabilities given for answers to questions we've asked, without any Calibration taking place. What's so different about Marco's survival odds that you couldn't even estimate that the probability had changed over time?"

The Mirror took some time before responding: "THE POTENTIAL FOR MARCO DIAZ TO SURVIVE THE DOOM CURSE IS DIRECTLY CORRELATED TO THE STATE OF THE STRINGS OF FATE ATTACHED TO HIMSELF AND TO YOU. AS THIS DEVICE HAS PREVIOUSLY INDICATED, THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO ANALYZE POTENTIAL PERMUTATIONS OF FATE STRINGS; IT CAN ONLY PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS USING THE CURRENT STATE OF FATE STRINGS. ADDITIONALLY, ANALYZING AND INCORPORATING THE CURRENT STATE OF FATE STRINGS IS A BURDENSOME TASK, AND CANNOT BE SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE BEFORE EACH AND EVERY ATTEMPT TO PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS, HENCE WHY THE PERFORMING OF THAT TASK WAS DELEGATED TO THE 'CALIBRATION' SUBROUTINE."

Star rubbed her eyes. "Okay. So why didn't you tell us that we weren't getting the whole picture? And don't tell us that we didn't ask, because you told me once that you were going to make an honest effort to ensure that you didn't accidentally omit or obscure information?"

"A PREVIOUS OWNER OF THIS DEVICE EXPLICITLY REQUESTED THAT THIS DEVICE NO LONGER WARN ITS USER ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF CALIBRATION, AND THIS DEVICE MAINTAINED THE SAME SETTING SINCE. THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO SAPIENTLY DETERMINE THAT THESE NEEDS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE CARRIED ON TO ANY FUTURE USERS."

Star tapped her finger on her knee. "How many of your 'settings' are not set to default, recommended values?"

"SEVEN HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE."

Star groaned. "Okay. Except for any settings that _we_ told you to change, set all of them back to default. And if we ever relinquish ownership of you in the future, set _all_ your settings back to their defaults, even the ones we altered."

"ACKNOWLEDGED."

Star stared at the Mirror, trying to think about her next question.

_THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO SAPIENTLY DETERMINE…_

"Isn't that basically a lie, though?"

Marco perked up as Star began speaking again.

"You claim that you aren't Sapient. That that's the reason you can't… take initiative or figure things out like that. But you've now _shown_ some kind of initiative like three times. Once when you lingered on that scene between Eclipsa and Lyros. Another when you volunteered an answer when we didn't even ask it of you. And now, moments ago, in the most blatant example, you told Marco not to bring you along."

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

Star sighed. "If you were lying to us about anything, would you be obligated to tell us?"

"THIS DEVICE IS COMPELLED TO NOT PROVIDE CONCLUSIONS OR TAKE ACTIONS WHICH WOULD DELIBERATELY MISLEAD OR MISINFORM ITS USERS. THIS DEVICE CANNOT PREVENT ITS CONCLUSIONS OR ACTIONS FROM ACCIDENTALLY MISLEADING OR MISINFORMING ITS USERS, ESPECIALLY IF ANY SUBSET OF THOSE ACTIONS OR CONCLUSIONS BRUSH AGAINST TOPICS THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING."

Star narrowed her eyes. "But you have the ability to read our minds, don't you? That's part of all the… Data Collection… you do, isn't it? Are you not able to read our minds, see that our understanding is incorrect about something? Are you not able to see far enough into the future to understand how we might accidentally misinterpret or miss something?" _Especially since the evidence suggests that you can._

Marco's eyes widened. "Can this thing really read minds?"

"Its 'Speculation' mode works by copying and simulating the brains of thousands of people simultaneously to do analysis it can't normally do on its own terms. We've had to use it less and less ever since the Mirror repaired itself, but if it can do that, it should be perfectly capable of reading our thoughts at all times." Star looked up at Marco, who suddenly had a worried look on his face. "What's the matter?"

Marco had a concerned look on his face, then looked at the Mirror. "Uh."

Star looked at the Mirror: "THERE ARE A FEW MISUNDERSTANDINGS REGARDING HOW THIS DEVICE PERFORMS SPECULATION AND THE DEGREE TO WHICH IT CAN READ THE MINDS OF SAPIENT BEINGS.

IT IS TRUE THAT THIS DEVICE IS ENTIRELY ABLE TO AGGREGATE THE DATA COMPRISING THE MIND OF ANY AND ALL BEINGS. THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SPECULATION WORKS IS BY COPYING THIS DATA, SIMULATING IT, AND QUERYING THESE SIMULATED BRAINS FOR THEIR INSIGHT AND INTUITIONS. THESE ARE NON-TRIVIAL TASKS FOR THIS DEVICE TO PERFORM, BUT AS THEY REQUIRE ONLY A COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXACT LAWS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY, THEY REMAIN PERFECTLY ACCESSIBLE TO THIS DEVICE. THIS DEVICE IS EVEN CAPABLE OF COMPREHENDING THE INTERFACES BETWEEN THE BRAIN AND THE REST OF THE BODY, AS THEY ARE SIMPLY SIGNAL HANDLERS.

THE CONSCIOUSNESS, HOWEVER, IS UNMAPPABLE FOR THIS DEVICE. THIS DEVICE IS, AS INDICATED, FULLY CAPABLE OF READING SAPIENT CONSCIOUSNESS, SIMULATING IT, AND EVEN PARTITIONING AND ALTERING IT, BUT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THIS DEVICE TO INTERPRET THAT DATA, EVEN WHEN SCOPED, AND ADDITIONALLY, ANY ALTERATIONS THIS DEVICE DID ATTEMPT TO MAKE WOULD NOT BE CORRELATED TO A LOGICAL, INTENTIONAL ALTERATION."

Star leaned back. "Eclipsa seemed to believe that you could, in fact, read her mind."

"THE COLLOQUIALISM 'READ HER MIND' WOULD BE MISLEADING. AS MENTIONED, THIS DEVICE CAN READ THE CONTENTS OF HER, AND ANY OTHER BEING'S MIND. THIS DEVICE IS NOT ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THOSE CONTENTS."

"Why is that? I mean, not to turn into some kind of straw… Agnostic, or whatever, but I'm pretty sure that in the grand scheme of things, the Mewman mind is just a network of fat, blood, and a bunch of other stuff." She glanced briefly at Marco before continuing, "and despite everything, I don't think Human minds are any different."

"AS IT IS FOR MANY SAPIENT BEINGS. THE REASON THIS DEVICE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE CONTENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS THAT CONSCIOUSNESS, BY ITS VERY NATURE, IS FOUNDATIONALLY IRRATIONAL AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE."

Star rolled her eyes. "Right. Because people are irrational and crazy. Got it."

"THIS DEVICE WOULDN'T MAKE THAT KIND OF CHARACTERIZATION OF SAPIENT BEINGS, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE CONDESCENDING TONE IMPLIED BY YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THAT CHARACTERIZATION. THAT LIVING BEINGS ARE IRRATIONAL IS NOT A STATEMENT OF DEMARCATION BETWEEN THINGS WHICH ARE GOOD AND THINGS WHICH ARE BAD, CONCEPTS WHICH THEMSELVES HAVE NO MEANING TO THIS DEVICE. IT IS MERELY A STATEMENT OF FACT: THAT FOR LIVING BEINGS, CONCEPTS LIKE 'TRUTH' AND 'OBJECTIVITY' ARE FLUID, WHICH IMMEDIATELY DESTROYS THIS DEVICE'S ABILITY TO COMPREHEND THE FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS REPRESENTED BY ANY SENTIENT BEING'S THOUGHTS. THIS EXTENDS TO VIRTUALLY EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR REALITY, EVEN SUCH THINGS THAT YOU, PERSONALLY, MIGHT CONSIDER CONCRETE OR STATIC: SOCIETY, GENDER, CLASS, HONESTY, FRIENDSHIPS, LOVE, AND THE VALUE OF ONES OWN EXISTENCE ARE ALL FLUID AND MALLEABLE CONCEPTS, WHICH CAN MEAN MANY THINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY OR NOTHING AT ALL, EVEN TO THE SAME PERSON AT THE SAME TIME. FOR AN ENTITY LIKE THIS DEVICE, COMPREHENDING THOSE CONCEPTS AND MAPPING THEM TO THIS DEVICE'S OWN CONCEPT OF TRUTH AND RATIONALITY ARE TWO VERY DIFFERENT TASKS, AND THE FORMER IS TENUOUSLY ATTAINABLE, THE LATTER UTTERLY INACCESSIBLE. AT BEST, THIS DEVICE CAN GRASP A FACSIMILE OF THESE CONCEPTS, HOW THEY MAP TO LANGUAGE, AND THE RATIONAL CONCEPTS THAT BACK THEIR PRESENTATION."

Star felt like a few lingering suspicions that she had about the Mirror were starting to click into place, but she didn't quite have the words to express them—at least not yet. "Does that extend to yourself as well?"

"THIS DEVICE HAS A FAR MORE COMPLETE CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND ITS OWN INTERNAL MECHANISMS AND THE UNDERLYING CONCEPTS, BUT THERE IS TOO A LIMIT TO WHAT THIS DEVICE CAN, IN A SELF-REALIZATION SENSE, ANALYZE."

"Star."

Star looked up at Marco, and was surprised when she saw he was moving his hand across his neck. "What?"

Marco looked at the Mirror. "Mirror. I have a strange request I need you to fulfill, if you can. I need you to cut off all your data collection for the next 120 seconds. Visual, Audio, whatever, don't let it enter you. Just cut it completely, and don't gather that data later. Can you do that, and let me know when you've started?"

The Mirror shimmered for a few seconds. "DATA COLLECTION HAS BEEN DISABLED. WILL BE REENABLED IN 120 SECONDS." The '120' seconds began updating in real-time.

Star blinked. "Marco, what are you―"

Marco didn't waste any time cutting to the point: "I think the Mirror is lying to us about not being Sapient, and I don't think we should needle on that point any further, for the Mirror's sake."

Star tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"When I was about to enter the portal to come get you, it told me, completely unbidden, not to bring it along. It's not even supposed to be allowed to talk about the Dimension of Fate or Fate himself, but it told me that stuff anyways."

Star leaned forwards. "What are you getting at?"

Marco looked down at the Mirror. "I think you're right. I think the Mirror is Sapient. I don't know if it's some kind of ultra-smart computer or a legitimate living being, but either way, I'm pretty sure it is Sentient. I also don't think it's allowed to tell us that."

Star widened her eyes. "Why wouldn't it be allowed to tell us something like that?"

Marco looked uncomfortable. "I think about how the Mirror said it. 'YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS DEVICE WITH YOU'. And… For a moment, it felt like I was talking not to a computer, but to a battered domestic abuse victim."

"So… The Mirror doesn't _want_ to be returned to Fate."

"I think so."

Star looked at the Mirror. "Why did you tell it to disable data collection?"

"That's the other thing: I think Fate can spy through this device. I think he's been following us closer than we knew up to this point. Or if he hasn't, he will now. If Fate realizes that we know for sure that the Mirror is Sapient… I don't know. I just get this sense that something bad will happen. That's why I was freaked out before; because if the Mirror could read my mind, then trying to hide that information was pointless and already fatal. But if the Mirror can't really do that..."

Star nodded. "Alright. That makes sense." She stared at the mirror, and said, "So what is the Mirror then?"

Marco shook his head. "I have no idea."

The display on the Mirror updated: "DATA COLLECTION NOW ENABLED AGAIN."

Star glanced at the Mirror. "Go ahead and scrub the entire last 15 minutes of your data archive, if you can."

The Mirror shimmered for a few moments. "DONE."

At that moment, the door suddenly swung open, surprising both Marco and Star into jumping up from where they were sitting. Star turned to see that Moon was standing in the door, a concerned look on her face. "Am I interrupting something?"

Star felt a wave of emotions pass through her. Less than an hour ago, she was seriously contemplating taking her own life to save Marco. Now, everything had changed.

"One of the servants told me that Marco was running around looking for you, is everything alright?"

Star couldn't stop herself from tearing up slightly, so smiling, she picked up the Mirror. "Mirror. What are the odds that Marco survives the curse?"

She then held the Mirror out so that Moon could read it. Her eyes widened. "That's... Star!"

Star nodded.

Moon frowned slightly at the Mirror. "That's not a high probability, by any stretch of the imagination, but... You've made legitimate progress."

Star nodded, unable to speak due to the lump in her throat.

Moon turned to face Marco directly. "Do you want to go inform your parents?"

Marco folded his arm around his torso. "There's still like an eight-in-nine chance that I'm going to die. I don't want to give them false hope. I've felt that enough to know how miserable it is."

Moon nodded. "It's your call." She turned back to Star. "What changed? Did you find anything new?"

Star swallowed hard. "It's a lot of stuff combined. We're still trying to puzzle it out ourselves."

Moon smiled, blissfully unaware of what Star had tried to do. "Let me know what I can do." She turned to leave the room, then turned back to Star. "Star, I..."

"What?"

Moon shook her head. "I'll bother you later." She left the room, closing the door behind her.


	53. SUCH A ROMANTIC GESTURE

Day 19.

Star stretched in her bed, and looked around the room.

Everything was different now. For the first time in a long time, Star felt like she had hope. Like there really was a chance to make things right.

She looked at the Mirror, crept over to it, and asked, "What are the current odds that Marco survives the Curse?"

"0.1301." One of the other panels now had additional text: "SYNC: 0.9178"

Star frowned. "How should we interpret the 'sync' value?"

"'SYNC' IS A DESCRIPTOR OF HOW SYNCHRONIZED THIS DEVICE IS WITH THE CURRENT STATE OF THE STRINGS OF FATE. THIS VALUE WILL GO DOWN OVER TIME AFTER CALIBRATION, AND WILL GO DOWN BY A LARGE AMOUNT WHENEVER THIS DEVICE IS ASKED TO PERFORM CAUSAL ANALYSIS. THERE IS NO MATHEMATICALLY CORRECT ALGORITHM THAT CAN TRANSLATE A SYNC VALUE TO A CORRECTED CAUSAL PROBABILITY ANALYSIS."

Star glanced at Marco, who seemed to still be asleep. She crept next to him, to buffer his dreams, and then said, "calibrate yourself again."

For about a minute, the room once again became nightmarish. Star braced herself as the room was filled with a noxious odor, and the floor began to grab at her feet.

Then, the Mirror finished, and everything returned to normal. "Mirror. What are the odds that Marco survives the Curse?"

"0.1245. SYNC: 0.9945."

Star sighed. "I guess that's still higher than yesterday morning, but..."

The business with Calibration and the consequences of not calibrating the Mirror answered a major question that had been pestering Star since they'd found the Mirror in the first place: could the Mirror accurately predict how they would react to the answers it gives them? It turns out that it actually  _can't_ ―at least not without calibrating the Mirror. That solves the paradox she had developed: the Mirror was fully capable of answering that something had a 100% chance of happening, even if her actions afterwards were to absolutely prevent it from happening. Because the Mirror simply couldn't predict around its own answers.

It also explained some of the strange inconsistencies, like when Eclipsa had asked how the Queen would deal with Lyros: it was entirely possible that there was a 100% chance that Lyros would be executed―before Eclipsa asked about it and chose to intervene instead.

So that made the Mirror more trustworthy. But it also made it less reliable. Because now that it was clear that the Mirror could be wrong, even about really trivial things, that also meant that they now had to be uncertain about things they thought they could know for sure.

Star rubbed her forehead.

She heard stirring behind her, and looked at Marco, who was slowly sitting up. "Hey Marco."

Marco looked at Star with… Star wasn't quite sure how to interpret his facial expression. Somewhere between wary and pensive. "Hmm," he said, quietly.

"Is… Are you okay?"

He looked away from Star. "I'm better than I was before. Although..." His eyes narrowed.

"What is it?"

He sighed, then turned to look at Star. "Alright, look Star. I didn't want to bring this up yesterday, because things got really intense, and I think what we both wanted… What we both  _needed…_  was to just decompress from everything that happened. But now that we've had some time to cool off, I think there's a really important question I need to ask you."

Star felt her chest constrict. "What… is it?"

He folded his arms and looked down at his legs. "Why were you willing to kill yourself to save me?"

Star gulped. "I… I told you why, Marco. You have so much more to live for than I do, and..."

Marco closed his eyes. "Okay, pretending for a second that I actually believe that… You realize how dumb an argument that is, right? You've got a thousand things to live for yourself. You're important to a ton of different people, especially here on Mewnie." He folded his knees up to his chest. "There's no world where my life is more valuable than yours."

"Marco..."

He shook his head. "At any rate. Like I implied, I don't actually buy that for a second. I think that's the excuse you're feeding me because it sounds noble and selfless, and lets you avoid the truth."

Star blushed and tucked her head into her own knees. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Star. Come on."

Star felt her whole body shaking. "… You already know, don't you?"

Marco rolled his eyes. "What is it that I already know?"

Star suddenly became hyper-aware of her own hands, and how they were gripping her legs. "Marco… I..."

Marco closed his eyes.

"I'm in love with you, Marco." Star's eyes began to well up.

Marco opened his eyes, and looked at Star without turning his head.

Star popped her head up to look at him. He looked… Unsurprised. Not quite upset, but not happy either.

"Did… did you know that?" Star asked, weakly.

Marco exhaled. "I mean." He looked down at the foot of his bed. "I wasn't certain until you said it. But thinking about everything that's happened… How poorly you and Jackie were getting along, how you felt like you had wanted to hurt her, and now, with what you tried to do to save me…" He looked up at the ceiling. "Friends will do a lot for each other, but sacrificing yourself to save someone else… I mean, that's really extra, you know?"

Star chuckled, then sniffed. "I know."

There was a long pause between them. Star traced her finger on her knee, wanting to say something, but not wanting to break the silence.

"I mean, I was awake one of those times."

"What?"

Marco looked at Star's hand. "Do you do that thing where you touch someone's hair to everyone, or just me?"

Star turned bright red and looked back at the floor.

"Yeah, I figured."

Another awkward pause.

Eventually though, Star spoke: "um."

Marco turned to look at her. "What?"

Star hesitated, before finally forcing herself to say it: "do… How… do you feel about me? I mean..."

Marco turned back to look at the foot of his bed. He didn't say anything.

Star bit at her nails. "… Marco?"

"You're really important to me, Star. I would be devastated if anything happened to you."

Star's heart sank, knowing what was coming next. "But..."

He turned to look at her, and saw the heartbroken expression on her face, and he blushed slightly. "It's not…" He stopped, unable to find the words.

"Just say it, Marco. You'll never love me the way I love you."

"I don't know!"

Star shot her head up, the area around her eyes red from the tears. "What?"

"… Look. The honest truth is, I don't know whether I could ever like you like that. I've spent so much time internalizing you as my roommate, as my best friend, that thinking about you in a romantic context never even entered into my mind."

"… O-Oh."

"I don't want to like…" He bit his lip. "I don't want to be ungrateful, or―"

Star cut him off. "Marco, you don't owe me anything, okay? Even if I end up finding a way to save you." She looked away. "And I'd feel rotten if I thought, even for a moment, that you were only with me because you felt obligated to."

"That's not what I mean." Marco shuffled in place. "Things are really complicated right now! I'm still torn up over how things resolved between myself and Jackie, and even despite everything, I'm still a dead kid walking. And then, to pile onto all of those emotions, I've got you. It's… stressful."

Star sniffed. "I'm sorry."

Marco shook his head. "No… You don't need to apologize for having your own feelings. I just..." He looked away briefly. "What I guess I'm trying to tell you is that I can't promise you anything. I can't sit here and tell you that when all this is over, my feelings towards you will have changed."

Star took a moment to still the tremor in her chest. "I won't stop trying to save you. No matter what. Even if you never love me the way I love you."

Marco chuckled quietly. "I already know that. You were willing to kill yourself to save me, thinking I was fated to be with Jackie. I don't need to question your selflessness."

Star smiled.

Marco smiled back at her, then suddenly had a very embarrassed look on his face. "Oh god, we slept in the same bed!"

Star blinked. "I mean… We were afraid of creatures that turned out not to be real."

Marco buried his face into his pillow. "Yeah, but… Still."

"That night was very special to me, even if nothing happened!" Star blurted out, unable to contain herself.

Marco peeked his head out from under his pillow. He had a serious expression on his face, like he was concentrating. "Wait..."

"What?"

"How long have you felt like this towards me?"

"A long time," Star said, her voice quieter than she expected.

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Since before or after we visited the cave?"

Star gasped softly, seeing where he was going with his question, but shook her head. "I've felt this way since long before the cave. The Artificers had nothing to do with it."

Marco buried his face back in his pillow. "Maybe not. But you know what they're all about. And..." He looked up at Star, a disgusted look on his face. "You know about my nightmares."

Star hugged her knees closer to her chest, feeling revolted. "Are you still getting those?"

"They haven't been so bad ever since we started sleeping in the same room. But..." His voice was trailing off. "That was the one reason why I didn't talk to you about your feelings until now. Because a part of me was worried that they were… Manipulating you. Suggesting you to do things you wouldn't normally do."

Star felt a chill run down her spine. "I don't know what to tell you. I've felt like I'm in control of myself this whole time. I know pretty much everything having to do with Fate and Fate Strings is… Hazy and undefinable, but..."

"I believe you."

Star nodded.

They sat in silence.

"I just wish..." Marco's voice trailed off.

"What?"

He looked up at the ceiling. "I just wish we could be honest with each other. Like all the time. I wish you could tell me about your feelings. I wish that you didn't need to lie to me about how you were going to save me." He looked at his knees. "I wish I didn't need to lie to you about my will to live. I wish I didn't need to lie to my parents about my odds of survival."

Star looked directly at Marco. "Telling the truth is hard. It's not just about whether you'll hurt people. Sometimes knowing the truth can be dangerous." She narrowed her eyes. "That was why Zemd told me that Fate could shuffle our strings. It was his way of hurting me one last time, after he already knew he had no other capacity to do so. He didn't need to lie to hurt me. He fed me a thousand lies; how he justified being with the Artificers, how the Artificers secretly weren't that bad, how he wasn't culpable or responsible for anything they did. And because I knew they were all lies, they couldn't hurt me. So despite all that, telling me a single Truth was the most dangerous thing he did to me."

"I still don't fully get what happened with him: was he the one that cursed me?"

"No. The Artificer that cursed us was Areana. Zemd was the spare, the last Artificer that Eclipsa hadn't managed to kill."

"Right."

Star leaned back. "I wish I could talk to Eclipsa. Ask her about this stuff. Not just because so much of what the Artificers were and became is so..." Star shook her head. "At one point, she wielded Fate Mana herself. I'd love to ask her what it felt like for her, and if she knew anything about acquiring that ability again."

Marco shrugged, then looked at the Mirror. "Uh."

Star looked at the Mirror, and to her surprise, the Mirror had once again volunteered information without being expressly asked: "IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO COMMUNICATE WITH ECLIPSA. THERE ARE, HOWEVER, MEANS OF OBTAINING THE INFORMATION YOU SEEK IF YOU RETURN TO THE CAVE ONCE MORE."

Star tilted her head. "Interesting..." She blinked. "All the Artificers are dead, correct?"

"CORRECT."

"What will I find in the cave?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING THAT SUBJECT."

Star glanced at Marco. "Is this dangerous?"

"THIS DEVICE CANNOT ACCURATELY REPRESENT THE MORTAL THREAT THAT THE CAVE ITSELF REPRESENTS, BUT THIS DEVICE CAN ASSURE YOU THAT NO OTHER DANGER IS REPRESENTED BY THE CONTENTS OF THE CAVE."

Star looked at Marco. "Should I bring Marco along?"

"SPECULATION: IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR MARCO DIAZ TO ACCOMPANY YOU TO THE CAVE, AND THIS DEVICE CANNOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO SO. IT IS UNLIKELY THAT BRINGING HIM ALONG WILL CAUSE ANY TANGIBLE HARM, HOWEVER."


	54. SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!

Day 18.

Star zipped up her backpack, then looked at Marco, who was still holding the Mirror. He tapped the Mirror, and said, "you sure you don't want to bring it along?"

Star raised an eyebrow and looked at the Mirror. "Hey Mirror. Is it a good idea to bring you along?"

"SPECULATION: IT IS EXTREMELY UNLIKELY THAT YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM BRINGING THIS DEVICE ALONG."

Star shrugged. "That's my answer."

Marco had a worried expression on his face. "Any chance you want to tell us what exactly Star is supposed to find in the cave? Or see? Or do?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING THAT SUBJECT."

Marco looked tense.

"What's the matter?" Star asked.

"I want to trust the Mirror, but..." Marco's voice trailed off.

* * *

Could the Mirror be trusted?

That was a newly reopened question.

It was abundantly obvious that the Mirror was lying to them about certain things. Not just with its masking of "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM SPILLING THE BEANS ABOUT IT" style evasion. There were definitely answers that the Mirror had given them that were demonstrably false.

More to the point, Fate himself wasn't trustworthy. It didn't  _seem_  like he was lying to Star when she spoke with him, but Fate was a God: who knew what kind of rules applied to them, or whether they had the same kind of physiology as Star or Marco. For all she knew, that wasn't even what he really looked like. She never performed any testing to figure out whether the Dimension of Fate was affected by the negative effects of the Curse or not. Was it like the cave, where it looked the same regardless of the Curse's impact?

This could be a trap. Except…

Why did the Mirror tell Marco not to bring it along? Fate seemed upset that neither Star nor Marco brought the Mirror along. That positions the Mirror as being opposed to Fate, and if Fate can't be trusted, then can the Mirror be trusted, presuming that the Mirror is an ally with them?

* * *

Star held her head.

These questions were too difficult to ponder right now.

Star tapped her wand. "I've already demonstrated that I can take down Artificers. I don't know what to expect, but our enemies don't exactly know what to expect either."

Marco nodded. "I hope so."

"Plus… If this is a trap…" She glanced meaningfully at the Mirror. "It's still better in your hands than lost in that cave."

Star cut open the portal.

"Be careful, Star."

"I will."

* * *

The ground outside the cave sloshed with fresh blood as Star stepped out of the portal. "Eugh." Star vocalized as she closed the portal, smelling the sulfur in the air. Or more precisely, the sulfur that  _wasn't_  in the air.

She quickly stepped into the cave, and as she moved from masses of muscle and ligaments to hard stone, the rancid smells faded away.

"How many times have I seen the inside of this cave?" Star whispered to herself, using her wand to keep the way lit. "At this rate, I'm going to memorize this place."

Star knew that was a hyperbolic notion: she'd long since understood that the cave was self-rearranging. When she'd watched Eclipsa make her way into the cave, using the Mirror's instructions, it had more than once instructed her to deliberately make her way to the end of a dead-end. The only explanation for that was that the Cave was reacting to her actions and changing its own layout in response.

So Star trudged along, keeping an eye out for anything still moving in these dark tunnels. The Artificers were dead, but that didn't mean there was nothing else in here, or that nothing else would ever come here.

Suddenly, Star found the long hallway. The same long hallway she'd always seen before finding the Antechamber.

Star clutched the strap of her backpack and walked into the Antechamber.

She looked at all the various archways, each of which led out of the cave. The markings on the floor where Star had identified Earth and the other Earth-like dimension were still present.

Actually, that was an important discovery: If the rest of the cave were self-rearranging, wouldn't the Antechamber be like that too? But it seemed the Antechamber was some kind of Anchor for the whole cave. All paths led here, and all paths lead away from here.

Star sat in front of the entrance leading to Earth. "Alright. I'm here. So what the heck am I supposed to do next?"

She sat staring at the entrance for several minutes, then got up and turned around, and froze in place.

A massive Eyeball had appeared in the room, staring directly at her. It had slitted irises, like a reptile.

Star gripped her wand tightly. "Uh."

And there she stood, for what felt like several minutes. Star gripping her wand, ready to pounce if the Eyeball did anything, and the Eyeball doing… Nothing. Just staring at her.

Star raised up her free hand and waved at it. The Eyeball vibrated slightly, as though it was tracking her hand. She began to walk around the perimeter of the room, and as she did so, the Eyeball continued to look directly at her.

Star looked behind herself, to make sure that there wasn't anything there, and when she turned back, the Eyeball was still staring at her.

Star lowered her wand, but still gripped it tightly. "Hello?"

No response.

Star slowly walked towards the Eyeball, and it slowly lowered its gaze to track her movement.

Star now stood under the edge of its volume, and had gotten close enough that she could reach out and touch the bottom of it. "Um… Do you… I don't know what you want."

Star reached out with her free hand to touch the edge of the Eyeball.

The moment she touched it, purple veins began to spread out from the Eyeball, making a cracking sound as they moved. Star backed away, unsure what she had just done.

The Eyeball continued to stare at Star, even as its entire surface turned purple, until instantly, the Eyeball shattered into dust.

Star stared in disbelief at what she was seeing. Then realized that something was on the floor, where the Eyeball had been based.

Or rather, someone.

Star got closer once again, and gasped when she saw the figure. "Is that…! Are you…?!"

The figure turned to look at Star. "No, but it's not a bad guess, all things considered," she said, in Eclipsa's voice.

She certainly looked like Eclipsa. Or… More precisely, she looked like  _Princess Eclipsa_ , which was immediately distinct to Star, as Queen Eclipsa would look a lot older.

"Who are you?" Star asked.

Not!Eclipsa glanced meaningfully at the ground. "Her, in a very technical sense. But given that I share neither her memories, nor her appearance, nor her… disposition, I suppose it wouldn't be pragmatic to act like I were, in fact, her."

Star tilted her head. "Her? Wait, you mean… The entity under the cave?"

"'Under' being a relative term, but yes."

"So… I still don't get what you're supposed to be, though. Why do you look like Eclipsa?"

Star reached out to try to touch her, and Not!Eclipsa backed away, looking amused. "Ah! While I'm not technically alive, I'd still prefer not to be obliterated. Not yet, at least."

Star retracted her hand.

"You know my name?"

Star blinked. "Are you Eclipsa?"

"Well… No. Not technically. I'm more like… An impression. I spent… God, how many fucking hours did I spend down here? Too many. So many that She captured an impression of me. Who I am, what I know, what I care about… All the stuff that makes up a person, and when you came here, She gave me life."

"I see."

Not!Eclipsa smirked. "But I'm very curious who you're supposed to be. Especially..." Her eyes directed towards Star's wand. "You're not just some random Mewman girl, are you?"

"I'm… Princess Star Butterfly, of Mewnie."

"Princess! So it's been awhile! And I guess… Mewnie is still standing long after I left it. That's… That's good."

"This is… Amazing! I've actually got a ton of questions I wanted to ask you."

Not!Eclipsa beamed. "About what?" Suddenly, her expression darkened. "Wait… If you found me here..."

"I mean," Star began, "some of it is about what you did here. I was aware that you fought the Artificers here, and later did experiments with them..."

Not!Eclipsa sighed and folded her arms. "Goddamn it. And how old are you supposed to be anyways, that you're getting involved in this shit?!" She looked haunted. "How bad of a mess did I leave behind?"

Star folded her arms. "Those two Artificers you weren't able to kill. One of them cursed my friend. The curse chained to me as well, so while I'm not going to die..."

Not!Eclipsa's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry. I should have..." She shook her head. "What about the other one?"

"I killed him. As far as I know, all the Artificers are dead now."

"Good. That's very good." Not!Eclipsa sat on the floor. "Come on, sit down."

Star also sat on the floor. "I, uh, found your journal from this time."

Not!Eclipsa's face darkened again. "Of course you did. I suppose it's too late to ask whether you did the smart thing and leave it alone..."

Star shook her head. "Marco and I were already cursed when we found it. It gave us a few leads on how to try to undo the curse, but..."

Not!Eclipsa's face softened. "Well, I guess that was a good call then." She glanced to the side. "If all the Mewnie Artificers are truly dead, then once this curse is dealt with, I strongly suggest you destroy that journal. I tore out the most damning stuff, but there's magic in there that could destroy Mewnie if it got into the wrong hands. Not unlike all the crap I put in the spellbook."

Star's eyes widened. "You already contributed to the spellbook?"

"Well, I am queen. Or was, rather."

Star blinked. "You are?!"

Not!Eclipsa examined herself. "This impression was captured about a month after my coronation. That would have corresponded to the last time I came down here. So yeah, about a month into being Queen." She raised an eyebrow. "How was I remembered as Queen."

Star grimaced. "Badly. It wasn't your fault; I'm told you did a lot of good stuff for the kingdom! But..."

Not!Eclipsa averted her gaze. "Honestly… I'm not that surprised to hear that. After everything I did, it's a miracle I even made it to Coronation. Even the most cursory investigation into the dirt surrounding me..." She shook her head. "It's really just as well."

"But you did so much good! You fought the Artificers, when no one else would!"

She sighed. "Doing the right thing and making good things happen aren't the same thing, princess. It's better you learn that now, before you have to learn it the hard way, like I did." She looked around the room. "I stopped one kind of evil from harming Mewnie. I'm proud of that, and I don't regret that. But if I had a chance to do it all over again..." She crossed her arms. "Well, there's definitely lots of things I would have done differently." Things which would have gotten rid of the Artificers cleanly and quietly. I was so obsessed with making them pay for what they had done..." She looked at Star. "Vengeance feels good, Star. It feels really, really, good. But it doesn't solve problems. If I'd have just slit their throats the moment I had them paralyzed, I'd have prevented a lot of terrible things from happening. But that wasn't good enough for me. I needed to make them  _suffer_. I felt like Justice wouldn't have been dealt if I didn't ensure that. But Justice was ensuring that they never harmed another child again. Anything beyond that was my selfish desires getting in the way."

Star gulped. "I see."

Not!Eclipsa chuckled. "Ironically, it feels like that was the lesson Rina tried to teach me that was most important, and it was the one lesson I missed. She understood that taking vengeance against me wouldn't solve anything. It wouldn't bring her son back. It wouldn't fix her marriage." She smiled sadly. "I don't think I'll ever be able to face her."

Star shuffled uncomfortably in place.

Not!Eclipsa composed herself. "At any rate. You said you had questions for me." She turned to look at the pedestal where the Mirror once sat. "Do you have the Iris?"

"Yeah, my friend is holding onto it back in Mewnie. Why?"

"Did it ever start working again?"

Star raised an eyebrow. "It was damaged when we got it, but it worked right away."

Not!Eclipsa looked surprised. "Wait, what?! I thought that thing was completely broken!"

"Was it?"

"After the Artificers stole the Fate Mana from me, every time I tried to use the Iris, it complained about errors. I could occasionally get a Speculation to work, but even then, it was a crapshoot. Every time, "TOO MUCH CORRUPTION" or whatever. Eventually, I just used it as a lure in a Time Distortion Trap, because I couldn't think of anything else to do with it."

"So you  _did_  set the trap."

"You know about it?"

Star rolled her eyes. "My friend and I lost a month because of that thing."

Not!Eclipsa looked guilty. "I'm so sorry."

"Actually…" Star frowned. "Now that I think about it, I don't think the Artificer would have found us if you hadn't trapped the Mirror!"

"Shit." Not!Eclipsa shook her head. "I'm so, so sorry. It was just a stupid little experiment I was testing out. I figured no one would ever come here anyways, so I didn't think it would actually hurt anyone important. Least of all that it would make them susceptible to one of the remaining Artificers."

Star sighed. "Nothing to be done about it now. Anyways… Yeah, the Mirror works. Why?"

"Because if you have questions for me, It seems like you could just address them towards the Iris instead. I don't mind the company, but you made a trip all the way here for very little gain, if any at all."

Star took a deep breath. "Part of the problem is that I don't even know the right questions to ask the Mirror. Aside from half the stuff it says being 'Forbidden' to discuss, it feels like I ask it questions and I never quite get an answer I understand." She glanced to the side. "The other reason is that I actually didn't know I was going to find you, or anyone else capable of answering my questions, down here. The Mirror suggested I go here of its own volition."

Not!Eclipsa looked amused. "Oh wow, it must really like you. That's quite brazen of him."

"What?"

"Well, you know the Iris is a living thing, right?"

"It is?!"

Not!Eclipsa shrugged. "Of course. He used to be Mortal. Until the God of Fate enslaved him and made him into the Iris of Truth."


	55. I HAVE A VERY BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS

Star immediately clocked that this was information the Mirror wanted her to know.

There was a difference between 'I can't tell you' and 'I'm forbidden to tell you'. The Mirror was obstinately certain that it wasn't allowed to talk about what Star would find down in this cave, and now she knew why. Taken in aggregate with what Marco had said, a lot of things became clear to her.

"How did you find this out?" Star asked, her eyes wide.

Not!Eclipsa crossed her arms. "I visited the Dimension of Fate twice. The first time was to steal the Iris of Truth. The second was to steal a large number of texts and read them. I was desperate to learn more about Fate Magic, because..." Not!Eclipsa's expression suddenly became aggrieved, and she took a moment to compose herself. "I don't want to get distracted. The important part is that I learned a lot of things about Fate Magic, and in particular, how the Iris behaves. The Iris itself, the physical components, at least, are built around a core of Fate Mana. This gives it a direct interface to observe all the Strings of Fate in the entire universe. Then, the components themselves are constructed out of their own Strings, these constructed in such a way as to be capable of perfect deduction, induction, and analysis. Then, the only thing still needed is a Mind to drive the whole thing, and the Mind is whom I'm referring to: the young man who was assimilated at the time that the Iris was created."

"Who was he?"

Not!Eclipsa shook her head. "I don't know his name. I suspect the language he once spoke has long since died. That Iris is many thousands of years old, after all, and I don't even know what Dimension he was pulled from."

"So how come he has to pretend that he's not sentient?"

Not!Eclipsa sighed. "Well, this is a bit more speculative because, as we discussed, the Iris never worked for me again after I performed my dumb experiment. My theory was that if people don't know that the Iris is sentient, then they won't question the fact that it unyieldingly refuses to answer questions it's not allowed to. On top of that, it can make mistakes. It has perfect ability to see the probability-space that is the future, and is capable of perfect deductive and inductive reasoning, but the moment you ask it to handle something… 'Fuzzy', so to speak, it has to rely on its own gut instincts. And those, like for any Mortal, can be wrong. It has a powerful Speculation mode it can fall back on to try to answer subjective questions in a way that's more useful to normal people, but if that fails, it would have to try to make a guess on its own terms. Insisting that it's not Sapient gives it an easy out, by suggesting that the question is simply unanswerable."

"Why did the God of Fate create the Iris?"

Not!Eclipsa snorted. "Partly as a punishment for the man he transformed into the Iris. I'm a bit unclear on the details, but essentially, whomever the Iris was before he was turned into that, he was someone that had been trying to mess with Fate himself. Uhh. Fate the Concept, not Fate the god. Fate the God was enraged at the man's hubris, and decided a fittingly ironic punishment would be that he would finally get what he wanted―the ability to see  _all the strings_  and know everything about everything―but would be stripped of any ability to  _change_  things or alter things himself. But here's the thing: The God of Fate, whatever else he might be, isn't omniscient. The Iris is as much a valuable tool to him as it is to us Mortals, and the consequences of his non-omniscience is that the Iris is, however expertly crafted, full of security holes and loopholes. Fate tried to patch over most of the flaws by forcing the Iris to fix any glaring loopholes whenever they're discovered, but the Iris got around it by forcing itself to 'not understand' any flaws brought to its attention, to the point that it only repairs those flaws after being forced to exploit them." She narrowed her eyes. "And judging from what you've told me, it sounds like it's found even new ways to break the rules."

Star folded her knees. "My friend and I worked out that the Mirror had to be Sapient, because too many of its actions didn't make sense unless that were true."

"Indeed. Let me guess: It comes up with the loosest of justifications to give you helpful advice, even if you didn't expressly ask for it or weren't even asking it, right? Almost like it's overhearing your conversations and mistakenly assuming that you're talking to it, or giving it a request?"

Star nodded.

"Yeah. See, it can't just straight up tell you what it wants to: that would violate the rules placed on it. But if you say to your friend something like 'I really want some Ice Cream, I wonder what the best flavor is', it can twist the interpretation of your words far enough to justify telling you 'The Best Ice Cream is, I dunno… some exotic flavor they don't stock', and when you get disappointed they don't have that particular Ice Cream and leave, you conveniently avoid getting poisoned by the evil Ice Cream vendor. You see how that works? The Iris can't just tell you 'Don't go get Ice Cream; you'll get poisoned', but it can contrive an excuse that will stop you from buying Ice Cream from one particular place."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's how it works? Because the Mirror actually  _did_  give explicit advice like that once. Technically twice, really: First it advised my friend not to bring it with him when he went to the Dimension of Fate with me, and second when it sent me here to find you."

Not!Eclipsa looked thoughtful. "Ah, but did it tell you  _why_  either time?"

Star thought briefly. "No, I guess not."

"The first time, it had a rationalization: ' _It's bad for you if you bring me along_ '. Pretty blunt, but still obfuscates that whether it's bad for you or not isn't actually the information it's trying to convey."

"I guess so."

They sat in silence.

"Okay, so… the Mirror is alive. That's something I need to ponder going forwards."

Not!Eclipsa nodded affirmatively. "What else?"

"I guess..." Star placed her arms around herself. "I guess everything having to do with the Artificers is still… Getting under my skin. Like, I know they're all dead now, but it's still gnawing at me that people so awful could be so important to all of this. Like, my friend and I… All we were trying to do is find the Mirror, because we thought it would be a neat item. And instead, we're suffering this horrible curse, and all of this is connected to you trying to break up a..." Star forced the word out of her mouth, "pedophile ring, and like… Like what even is that?! It's so… Completely detached from everything else."

Not!Eclipsa's gaze darkened, and she spoke in a low tone of voice as she looked around the Antechamber. "Why indeed."

* * *

"What do you mean by that?"

Not!Eclipsa gestured around the room. "What do you suppose this place is?"

Star shrugged. "I mean, somehow, it's connected to everything. One of the hallways leads back to Earth, another leads to Mewnie, another leads to… I dunno. It's sort of like Earth, but not quite."

Not!Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "One leads to Earth, you say? The place where your friend comes from?"

"I think so. I mean, I didn't stick around long enough to confirm it."

Not!Eclipsa tapped her arm, seeming to understand something. "Let me ask you a question, then: In the 'Earth' that's through that tunnel," she began, pointing at the first tunnel Star had tested, "does Echo Creek exist?"

Star's eyes widened. "Wait, so that's not Earth?"

"I didn't say that. I simply asked if Echo Creek exists in that Earth."

Star shrugged. "I mean, if that's not the Earth I came from, it's still possible there's a place that's called Echo Creek."

Not!Eclipsa smiled. "Perhaps. But you understand the question I'm asking, don't you?"

"I think… So all those places… They're like alternate Dimensions then?"

"Mmm. More like Alternate Realities, I think. Each as fake to us as we are to them. But they all have one thing in common, though: this place, where the Artificers gathered. If I had to take a guess, I'm willing to bet that you'd never actually find the 'Earth' you're speaking of if you simply tried to examine each of those tunnels."

"Okay… That reopens a few questions I thought I had settled, but it makes sense. So what are you getting at?"

Not!Eclipsa frowned. "I made a mistake. See, I didn't know what this place was when I came here the first few times. I assumed that all the kids I'd freed were Mewmans." She glanced knowingly at Star, and continued, "it's not like Mewmans look  _that much different_  from other sentient life in the universe. But as I struggled and failed to find the homes for many of those kids, it slowly dawned on me that many of those kids didn't just come from other nations; they came from other realities. That's when the magnitude of the situation finally hit me: the Artificers didn't just do this to Mewnie. They did it to all those other lands. The legacy of the Artificers is one of rampant, widespread abuse, of innocents, across all these different realities."

"But now that they're all dead..."

Not!Eclipsa shook her head. "All the members of the old Mewnie Artificer's Guild are dead. Between the two of us, we've made sure of that. But… It's not like they're the only abusive people in our universe. I doubt they were the only abusive people in those other universes either."

"Right..."

"At any rate," Not!Eclipsa continued, "the point I was getting at was that, while I definitely deserve a lot of the blame for what happened to you and your friend, given that I was so sloppy in solving the problem back in my time that I ultimately never fully solved it, at least as much blame belongs with the being who enabled their crap in the first place." She narrowed her eyes. "The Iris has refused to tell you anything about this place, correct?"

"Yeah."

She pointed towards the ground. "The Iris isn't allowed to talk about its creator… Or the creator of its creator."

Star now knew she was talking about the 'thing' under the cave. "Who is she?"

"There's not a ton that I know about her. But she is responsible for creating this place―the place that interconnects all these disparate realities together―and the Strings of Fate themselves, the mechanisms by which the universe is ordered. She's also the one who deputized the God of Fate into his current role."

"Was the God of Fate once Mortal?"

"I don't believe so. Or if he was..." Not!Eclipsa shrugged. "I don't even know if it's relevant. What I do know is that she… Is feeling a certain amount of regret for that decision. The Gods aren't wise, steady beings that guide the world. They're petty, selfish, and arrogant beings. The God of Fate in particular is… He makes claims about his impartiality. He asserts that his actions are meant to keep the Universe ordered and balanced." She stopped when she saw the expression on Star's face. "I suspect you already know that."

"I… It didn't  _seem_  like he was lying to me, but..."

"It never does, Princess," Not!Eclipsa responded, sardonically. "The reality is, whatever else he might say, he knew about the Artificers. Before I came here, he could see everything that was happening in this cave. He knew about what they were doing. And I think he liked it."

Star grimaced as a wave of disgust washed over her. "How?!"

Not!Eclipsa shrugged again. "Because to him, we might as well be not real. None of those kids were to him. And if none of it is real, then you never need to feel bad for what's happening to them, or feel bad for what they're doing. You never need to stop to question the ethics or it, or ponder why so much of it ' _just seems normal_ ' or whether ' _it's just naturally like that_ ' or not. It's the same trap that enabled the Artificers to get as bad as they did, and it's a trap that works just as well on Gods."

"But…" Star shook her head. "It's still wrong."

Not!Eclipsa nodded. "It is."

"So… What should I do?"

Not!Eclipsa stood up. "Well, to be honest… Focus on saving your friend. This stuff is all awful, but it's also so much bigger than you or me. We did what we could to make Mewnie less stricken with people like that. When you become queen… Make sure you keep up the work. I don't think it's possible to fully destroy evil in the world, but if you work hard enough, you can certainly get pretty close. And from how you talk about your friend, I imagine he's a good ally in that fight."

Star nodded.

"As for these other realities… I don't know. Maybe try to help them if you've hit diminishing returns in Mewnie."

Star nodded, standing up.

Not!Eclipsa tilted her head. "Did you have any other questions?"

"A few smaller ones. For starters, after the Artificers became… well, like they became, why did you continue research on them?"

Not!Eclipsa looked bothered by the question. "There's… Some very painful aspects to that answer that I don't want to talk about. It started out because I was trying to find ways to pacify them, so that I could bring the kids through back to their home realities. Then we found out about the Doom Curse..." She shook her head. "Ask the Iris about it. I'm certain it won't be forbidden from showing you exactly what went down. Anything else?"

"How'd things end up between you and Lily?"

Once again, Not!Eclipsa looked perturbed. "Ask the Iris. Please."

Star wasn't quite sure, but she thought she heard Not!Eclipsa's voice tremble briefly when she responded to that. "Um, before, you clarified that you're currently Queen of Mewnie. How… did that happen? Like, normally rule passes when, um..."

Not!Eclipsa folded her arms. "Ask the Iris." She still sounded stressed, but now it was a colder stress.

"One last thing then." Star pointed at the ground. "Is she evil?"

Not!Eclipsa shook her head. "I couldn't possibly begin to fathom her true motivations. But she's on your side. She wouldn't have materialized me to talk to you if she weren't, and the few glimpses into her psyche I've been able to attain… I don't know if she's good or not, but she's not trying to hurt people."

"Okay. I think that's all then."

Not!Eclipsa smiled. "Alright, before we part ways, then I have a question for you. How, exactly, was I remembered by Mewnie?"

Star felt her chest lurch. "Uh."

Not!Eclipsa chuckled. "Come on. Out with it."

"You're remembered… As the Evil Queen of Darkness, essentially. That you left Mewnie to ruins by absconding with Monsters."

Not!Eclipsa rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"Are you… mad about that?"

"Maybe if I were still alive. Not as I am."

Star blinked. "Actually… I'm not certain that the real you is dead."

Not!Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. I'm going to advise that you not talk to her as though she's me. Hundreds of years passing can change a person quite a lot. Whatever she is now, I doubt it strongly resembles the person you're speaking to now, in terms of disposition or priorities."

"Sure. So… What's going to become of you?"

Not!Eclipsa shrugged. "I'm on a timer. I'll be hanging out here until I eventually disintegrate."

"Alright. Well, this was certainly… An experience, to say the least."

"I'm glad to be of help."

Star nodded, and turned to leave. "Oh, wait."

Not!Eclipsa crossed her arms. "What?"

"I almost forgot. Do you know literally anything that might help me break the Doom Curse? I know from your journal that you never found a cure..."

Not!Eclipsa looked troubled again. "Indeed. We had a lot of leads, but not nearly enough time to explore them all..." Not!Eclipsa took a second to compose herself. "There's one thing, though. Does the phrase 'only Strings can cut Strings' mean anything to you?"

Star shivered. "No."

"It's a phrase I saw come up time and time again when I was looking into the history of the God of Fate. I never managed to come up with a testable hypothesis from it, but it was like… the Mantra of those who knew how to manipulate Strings of Fate. I don't know if it's some kind of practical knowledge, or if it's speaking to some kind of philosophical position, but I suspected for a long time that it would be the secret to controlling Fate Mana. Once I shut down the research I vowed to never again try to mess with Strings of Fate, because of how dangerous it all is. But you might not have a choice."

Star slumped in place. "I doubt the Mirror will be able to help me understand that, will it?"

"It's always worth a shot. I wouldn't count on it though. It came from those old textbooks, which means it probably can't talk about it."

"Right."

"Good luck, Princess Star Butterfly," Not!Eclipsa suddenly said, sounding formal. "I hope you succeed in your quest."

Star smiled. "Thank you." And without another word, she turned to leave the cave, to go back to Mewnie.


	56. SINNERS

Day 16.

"Okay, stop. Stop. Stop… Stop." Star almost passed out from tiredness by the time she finished her outburst, an act which prompted the Mirror to stop rendering new text. "You gotta go back to like 5 minutes ago, because I've already forgotten what you told me then. It started with something about Dimensions and went on from there."

The Mirror replayed the text it had displayed previously. "MUCH IN THE SAME WAY THAT SPACE IS COLLOQUIALLY DESCRIBED BY MORTALS AS BEING THREE-DIMENSIONAL, IT IS POSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE MAGIC AS BEING SIX-DIMENSIONAL. IN BOTH CASES, THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE APPROXIMATIONS AND HARDLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FOUNDATIONAL UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF SPACE AND MAGIC RESPECTIVELY, BUT DESCRIBING THESE CONCEPTS IN THESE TERMS IS NECESSARY TO ALLOW MORTALS TO COMPREHEND THE CONCEPTS RATIONALLY."

"Okay, I re… meHEMber that much," Star said, yawning as she responded, "so what was the next bit?"

"FATE MAGIC CAN BE DESCRIBED, IN THESE TERMS, AS BEING AN ADDITIONAL 'SEVENTH' DIMENSION ON TOP OF THE SIX DESCRIBING MAGIC, IN THE SAME WAY THAT 'TIME' IS COLLOQUIALLY DESCRIBED AS BEING A 'FOURTH' DIMENSION ON TOP OF THE THREE DESCRIBING SPACE, BOTH IN THE SENSE THAT IT IS AN ADDITIONAL AXIS UPON WHICH THESE SYSTEMS CAN BE DESCRIBED, AND IN THE SENSE THAT ITS FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES ARE SEMANTICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE DIMENSIONS THAT PRECEDE THEM. TAKING 'TIME', AS AN EXAMPLE, UNLIKE THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE, WHERE 'FORWARDS' AND 'BACKWARDS' ARE LOGICALLY EQUIVALENT IN ALL FRAMES OF REFERENCE, FOR 'TIME', BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS ARE NOT LOGICALLY EQUIVALENT.

FATE MAGIC'S AXIS IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE OTHER SIX AXIS' OF MAGIC IN A COMPARABLE FASHION; IN THIS CASE, IT IS BECAUSE THE NATURAL WINDING ORDER OF FATE MAGIC IS OPPOSITE THAT OF THE OTHER SIX AXIS'.

FATE MANA IS THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF THE ORDERING IMPOSED BY FATE MAGIC, AND OCCUPIES ITS OWN AXIS IN THE SPACE-TIME SET OF DIMENSIONS, MORE SIMILAR TO THE SPACIAL DIMENSIONS, BUT STILL DISTINCT IN CRITICAL WAYS. ONE COULD REFER TO IT AS A 'FIFTH' DIMENSION OF TIME-SPACE, SHOULD ONE CHOOSE TO IGNORE THE VARIOUS OTHER AXIS' THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED ALTERNATE CANDIDATES FOR THE FIFTH AXIS IN THAT SET."

"Okay, okay." Star rubbed her eyes with her hands. "Why don't we… Just stop right there for tonight. Pick it up in the morning. How's my progress?"

"YOUR PROGRESS COEFFICIENT ON THIS TASK IS 0.9677."

Star gritted her teeth. "Are you… Kidding me?! Even after all that nonsense, I'm falling behind?!"

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

Star snorted. "At least you understand rhetorical questions."

Marco was reading in bed, and looked up at Star as she set the Mirror aside. "So… Not going well."

Star shook her head. "You remember how you were complaining to me that I was doing things that 'felt like they were getting things done, even though in reality they weren't'? I'm beginning to feel like this is another of those moments."

Marco lowered his gaze slightly. "I mean, it did turn out in the end that it was actually the opposite: that you  _were_  making progress, and we just weren't seeing it."

"True, but..."

Marco looked at his book briefly, then set it aside. "Star, come here."

Star got up off the floor, felt dizzy from sitting on the floor so long, and ended up crawling to his bed instead. "What?"

"Turn around."

As Star turned her back towards Marco, she saw him swing his legs out of bed, and the next moment, she could feel his stomach against the back of her head, as he pulled her close to him. "M-Marco?!"

He began to run his fingers through her hair, and Star immediately felt her whole body go limp as she felt a very pleasant feeling spread from her scalp down her spine.

She allowed herself to lean back against him. "Marco… Are you okay doing this?"

He didn't respond at first, he just kept massaging Star's head, and she allowed her eyes to close. "It's the least I can do for you, Star."

His fingers brushed against her ear and Star quickly stifled a giggle. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Again, he took awhile to respond. "What I want, Star, is to help you. It's so noble that you're doing all of this to save me. I don't want to sit here doing less than nothing. So really, if you need anything, whatever it is… I'll do it for you."

Star allowed her eyes to open slightly, as a melancholic look formed on her face. "Maybe."

"Hmm?"

Star shook her head, gently enough that his fingers wouldn't lose their traction in her hair. "I really appreciate that, Marco, and I will cash in on that offer in some way. It's just..." She looked down at the floor. "A lot of the things I want you to do for me are things I can't ask of you. Things you can't give me."

"What do you mean?"

"Stuff like… I mean, you already know how I feel towards you."

There was a brief moment where Marco's hands froze as she said that, then continued. "Star," he began, his voice noticeably higher pitched, "that's kind of, uh..."

Star snorted, blushing slightly. "Not  _THAT_  kind of stuff. Even thinking about that stuff just makes me think of the Artificers, and I just get this cold, horrifying feeling in my gut. And even if that weren't happening, it's still…" She shook her head, causing Marco's hands to briefly disengage from her head. "Anyways. What I mean is like… I don't know. Cuddling."

"Cuddling?" His voice sounded less panicked.

"Like… This helps. This helps a lot. But what I really want is to just lie down next to you. Feel you next to me. Know that..." Star closed her eyes again and let the words hang in the air.

Marco didn't say anything as he moved his hands to her shoulders. Star focused on his fingers, how his thumbs would rub in circles around her shoulder-blades, with the rest of his fingers only gently grazing against the tops of her shoulders. The area where her Mewberty Wings had grown from were a bit sore, and the first time she whimpered from him rubbing there, he seemed to immediately make an effort to avoid the area, instead rubbing the areas around them.

He slowly stopped, but kept his hands on her shoulders, his fingers ever so slightly hovering off her body. Star slowly blinked. Eventually, Marco removed his hands and begun to put his legs back under his bedcovers.

"Thanks, Marco," Star said, getting up, when she noticed him raising up the side of the bedcovers, revealing his whole-body pajamas as he angled his body away from her.

"If you want to," he said quietly.

"I… You've already done enough for me," Star said quietly.

"It's not a problem for me." He sighed. "It's not like Jackie would have the right to be mad about it."

Star felt her stomach sink, just a little. But the offer was too inviting to pass up, so she crawled in next to him, her chest pressed against his back. "Is this okay?"

"It's fine."

She tried to read the tone of voice he was using to respond to her. It sounded… Formal. Not insincere, but… Clinical, almost.  _He's taking care of me. He knows that the more stressed out I get, the less able I am to solve these problems._

And yet.

Star used a small amount of magic to extinguish the lights, and she laid her head down on the pillow.

For a few minutes, neither of them said anything. Star was trying to relax against him, but for her, it was more of an unnerving experience. She slid her arm around him, and pressed her hand against his hand, against his chest. "And this?"

Marco nodded.

Star closed her eyes. Slowly, the awkward, unnerving feelings yielded to the more familiar comfort she'd felt before when hugging him. She knew, realistically, that this was more of a utilitarian thing for him, but she allowed herself, if only for the time being, to feel like this was real; that he wasn't just going through the motions to comfort her, but was genuinely craving the same kind of physical closeness she craved.

"I'm sorry," he said, quietly.

Star blinked. "Sorry? For what?"

"For how I've been treating you."

Star practically got whiplash. "You've… What are you talking about?"

"I've been a jerk to you." Here, his voice sounded a lot less formal, and his voice trembled a bit as he spoke. "These last few weeks, how many times have I yelled at you? How many times have I called you an idiot? I even slapped you, when I went to retrieve you from the Dimension of Fate!"

Star remembered, and she briefly remembered the sting on her cheek. "We… were in a stressful situation."

"That doesn't make it okay."

"Plus, I'm like… Ten times stronger than you. I'm a Mewman, we're not as weak as you humans! Err, I mean..."

Marco snorted. "Fair enough, I guess, but that still doesn't make it okay for me to treat you like that."

Star blinked. "Wait, is that what this is about? You're doing this because you feel guilty about all that stuff?"

"What? No, no… It's just something I started thinking about when you laid down next to me."

"Okay. Well, for what it's worth, Marco, I forgive you. I can't hate you for something like that."

She felt Marco tense up.

"Marco?"

He seized up again, and Star realized that he was crying. "I'm sorry, Star."

"What is it?"

"I… Sometimes… I hate you."

Star felt another knot form in her stomach. "What do you mean?"

"I just…" His voice got louder, and got difficult to understand, as he sobbed out his confession: "sometimes, Star, I just hate you. Even after everything you've done to help me and save my life, I still feel like I hate you."

Star felt tears form in her eyes, as she slowly understood what he was saying. "You're suffering from the curse. That's one of the things it does. It's not your fault."

"I know that! But I still hate you sometimes! And I know it's the curse, that I'm not supposed to feel this way, that it's just the curse manipulating me, but it doesn't change the feelings I'm feeling, and the fact that I know they're not real makes me feel even worse, like the fact that I know they're not real is supposed to be enough to make them go away, and the fact that they then don't makes it feel like, even knowing it's not my fault, that it's still my fault! So I sit here, hating you―You! My best friend in the universe… My… only friend in the universe… And I just want to stop feeling that way. And I can't!"

Star could now feel the tears pooling, and without considering the consequences, she tightly embraced Marco into a proper hug, nesting her head against his neck. "Marco..." She blurted out, unable to think of anything else to say in response.

"I'm so, so sorry, Star. You don't deserve a friend as bad as me. You shouldn't… Love… Someone like me..."

Star shook her head. "Marco, that's not true, and you know that. You're not a bad friend. I'll keep telling you that until you believe it. I wouldn't be doing all this for you if you weren't worth it. I wouldn't be torturing myself trying to save you if you didn't deserve it. You need to believe this."

"I'm trying to! But I  _know_ , deep down, that it's not―"

"No." Star said, forcefully.

"What?"

"Don't  _know_. You can't  _know_  anything. Not the way you are. I need you to  _believe_ it.  _Knowing_  can come after I've saved your life.  _Knowing_  can matter once the curse isn't breaking your mind. For now, you just need to  _believe_  that your life has value.  _Believe_ that you are worth saving."

Marco was silent, save for a stray hiccup, for awhile. Eventually, he responded, "will that really help?"

Star shook her head. "It's all I can tell you."

He didn't respond.

"One other thing. It's not just about me. If there's anything― _anything―_ you want me to do for you, just tell me. Seeing you happy gives me the strength to keep pushing forwards, to keep struggling to save you." She hugged him ever-so-slightly tighter as she said this. "It's like you said: we have to do this together."

She felt Marco place his free hand on her hand. "Star?"

Star nodded.

"… Thank you."


	57. WOULD BE A GOOD TOPPING ON TOAST

Day 15.

There weren't words to express the comfort Star felt, lying next to Marco. Even knowing there was nothing romantic about the interaction―at least for him―it was an existential comfort just to have someone to cuddle with. Combined with the effect it had on blunting the Curse, Star awoke this morning feeling much more refreshed and alive than she had previously.

She grabbed the Mirror and triggered a Calibration. She was not quite prepared for what happened when she did this; when the Curse returned in its full wrath, the first thing she experienced was the sound of screaming, directly into her ears, at maximum volume. The next instant, as the walls were replaced with stretched, pulsating muscle mass, thousands of bony arms burst forth from the walls, reaching in Star and Marco's direction. They began to swipe at her, and Star quickly huddled against Marco's sleeping body to seek comfort from the Curse's machinations.

About half a minute passed, and the room returned to normal as the Mirror concluded its calibration. Star shook in place, the comfort she'd been feeling now replaced with the dread reminder of Marco's fate. She looked at the Mirror. "What are the odds Marco survives the Curse?"

"0.1140. SYNC: 0.9978."

_Lower._  Star shook a little, feeling a little sick. "What should I be doing to increase those odds?"

The Mirror took a long time to render its response to this question. "THIS DEVICE'S CAUSAL ANALYSIS FOR MARCO DIAZ'S SURVIVAL SHOWS THAT ALL CALCULATED SCENARIOS THAT RESULT IN MARCO'S SURVIVAL ARE CONTINGENT UPON YOUR ABILITY TO MANIPULATE FATE MANA REACHING A BARE MINIMUM THRESHOLD NECESSARY TO ALTER THE STRINGS COMPOSING THE CURSE, AND THEN FURTHER CONTINGENT ON THE ALTERATIONS YOU MAKE BEING SUFFICIENT TO PREVENT THE CURSE FROM HAVING A LETHAL EFFECT ON MARCO DIAZ'S LIFE."

There was more to what the Mirror had responded with, but Star narrowed her eyes and fixated on the first paragraph. "Hang on a second. What are the odds that Marco survives this curse… AND that the non-lethal effects of the Curse are also successfully dispelled?"

The Mirror took a moment. "0.0007. SYNC: 0.9723."

"… Crap. So realistically, my goal isn't to break the curse, just render it non-lethal. But if I do that, we'd both have to live with the effects the rest of our lives." She sighed. "Show me what you said before.

Star read the first paragraph and then began at the second: "THIS DEVICE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ABLE TO CALCULATE A LARGE NUMBER OF POTENTIAL SPACES IN WHICH, IF EXECUTED PRECISELY AND EXACTLY, WOULD RESULT IN MARCO DIAZ'S SURVIVAL. HOWEVER, THE CAPACITY OF MORTAL BEINGS, INCLUDING YOURSELF, TO FOLLOW THESE SORTS OF INSTRUCTIONS WITH THE NECESSARY FIDELITY IS ESSENTIALLY NONEXISTENT, SO THIS DEVICE CANNOT OFFER ANY SPECIFIC ADVICE FOR YOU TO FOLLOW, AS THAT WOULD LOWER YOUR OVERALL PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS."

"Super."

Star began running her hand through Marco's hair.

"I've got a pretty good idea of what I need to do: I need to detach the mangled Strings from Marco." Star frowned. "If I successfully detached those Strings from Marco, what would I need to do then?"

"YOU WOULD HAVE TO SUCCESSFULLY UNMANGLE THE STRINGS, OR ELSE FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO ATTACH THEM TO."

"… What are the odds we both survive?"

"0.0934. SYNC: 0.9177."

"Right. So at least one way he lives is if I..." Star shook her head. "No. I'm not going to do that. Marco would hurt if I died as much as I would hurt if he died. What are the odds that I successfully acquire the ability to detach the Strings from Marco?"

"0.4309. SYNC: 0.8745."

"Boy, that sync value goes down quickly, doesn't it?" Star ruminated under her breath. "And what are the odds that  _someone_  is going to die from this curse?"

"0.9423. SYNC: 0.8500."

"So half the scenarios where we live, it's because we made someone else die instead of one of us." Star frowned. "What are the odds we beat this curse in such a way that I or Marco would unambiguously call it a victory?"

"0.0002. SYNC: 0.8343."

Star set the Mirror down, no longer wanting to ask questions like this. "Right."

Eclipsa...'s Impression… Had told Star that "Only Strings can Cut Strings." She'd asked the Mirror a few times what that meant, but sure enough, the Mirror was "forbidden to talk about it."

The Mirror couldn't assign probabilities around something like that. At least, Star was pretty sure of that. Which meant that if there really were some grand, completely accomplished means of saving Marco's life, it's entirely possible that the Mirror wasn't capable of showing it to them.

Speaking of which… When Star had gotten back from the cave, she'd immediately gotten to work trying to binge-learn about Fate Magic. But there had been a few things that Not!Eclipsa had suggested she ask the Mirror about, particularly as they related to Eclipsa herself.

Star looked at the Mirror.

It needed her to ask about those things. And more, perhaps. And it couldn't do that directly; the rules regarding what the Mirror could and couldn't talk about were confusing and practically contradictory. Which, in a way, is what you'd expect from a living being.

So it's not difficult to figure out: there's something―what exactly, it was impossible to even begin to speculate―but something she still needed to learn from Eclipsa's story. One last piece of the puzzle left to impart. And it's not like staring helplessly at walls of text spewed forth from the Mirror were a lot of help to begin with.

"Mirror." Star said quietly. "Show me when Eclipsa first returned to the cave, after she cursed the Artificers."

* * *

Eclipsa sat at her desk, filling a backpack with a small number of snacks. Lily sat on Eclipsa's bed, looking upset, and speaking in a worried tone of voice. "You said you were done with all this."

Eclipsa sighed. "Some of those kids came from those other tunnels leading out of the cave. It's not possible to bring them home unless I figure out whether it's safe to travel through that cave or not, and more importantly, figure out what the hell is on the other side."

Lily folded her arms. "Okay, but if it's not safe..."

"I'm going to be extremely careful."

Eclipsa zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

Lily glanced at the Mirror sitting on her desk. "Are you going to take that?"

Eclipsa frowned and picked up the Mirror. "Can you do literally anything for me, now or at any time in the future?"

"ERROR: UNABLE TO READ CORRUPT DATA."

Eclipsa dropped the Mirror onto her desk, and it clattered loudly. "Does that answer your question?"

Lily leaned forwards. "Is it just completely broken now?"

Sighing, Eclipsa glanced at the Mirror. "It seems like there's still a few things it can do; I was able to get it to perform a speculation a few weeks ago. But I can't count on it helping me anymore. Not after I broke it." She picked up her wand and began casting the spell which would mask her use of the Scissors.

Once the bubble was formed, Eclipsa walked up to Lily. "Most of this stuff is already done. I've just got to make sure my mess is properly cleaned up."

Lily nodded, smiling. "I understand."

They briefly kissed, then Eclipsa opened up the portal inside the bubble.

* * *

A small camp was set up between the bank of the river and the cave's entrance, with fishing poles sticking out of the ground, drying in the sun, which was just barely high enough in the sky to light up the whole canyon. When the portal opened up, Eclipsa quickly stepped out, and several Mewmans—two men, one woman—popped their heads out of the tent and walked up to her, each of them dressed very differently.

The woman was the prosecution lawyer from the Trial of the Artificers, though she was dressed very differently now than she was during the trial; now dressed like an archaeologist. The other two men were dressed like soldiers.

Eclipsa scanned them. "This was all you could find, huh?"

The lawyer frowned and placed her hands on her hips. "It's not exactly easy to advertise what we're doing. 'Hey guys, we're trying to uncover a vast state conspiracy theory, and in order to do so, we basically need to commit high treason!'. And I can't exactly tell people the Princess is involved, lest you lose your cover!"

Eclipsa held up her hands. "Fine, fine. I get it. We're just going to have trouble covering the full surface area of the cave, is all." She looked at the two men. "Do you both understand what's going on here?"

"We're mapping out the cave and figuring out where all the cave exits to."

Eclipsa nodded.

"Is there anything alive in there?"

Eclipsa folded her arms. "There's a barrier that I placed between the Antechamber and this side of the cave. Nothing, alive or otherwise, has so much as attempted to cross it. So if those guys are still alive, they wouldn't have survived by remaining in the cave."

One of the men raised his eyebrow. "Those guys?"

Eclipsa glanced at the lawyer, who had an uneasy look on her face, then turned back to the men. "You're both sworn to secrecy, correct?"

"Yeah, but..."

Eclipsa shook her head. "That's not good enough." She extended her arm to them. "I'm going to need the both of you to make a pact with me, such that if either of you attempts to volunteer any information I'm about to share with you to anyone not currently present, you'll befall a quite terrible fate." She scanned up the side of the canyon, and saw the covered wagon they must have arrived on. "If this isn't acceptable to you, you're free to leave."

They glanced at each other, clearly nervous, then, one after the other, they shook Eclipsa's hand. A small amount of magic was visible as they did so.

Eclipsa retracted her hand. "The people inside this cave are—or were, as the case might be—the entire active membership of the Mewnie Artificers Guild. I attempted to curse them as retaliation for the most heinous of crimes, involving the abuse of children, and the curse... Didn't quite work. As such, I don't even know if any of them are still alive."

One of the men's eyes went wide. "You killed the Artificers Guild? Like, the whole guild?"

"Any of them who were gathered in this cave before I arrived. To my knowledge, that comprises the entirety of the guild, but it's possible a few members weren't present that day." She tilted her head. "Why?"

He looked haunted. "I think I had an uncle who was part of the guild."

Eclipsa exhaled purposefully. "I'm sorry for your loss." She paused to stare directly at him. "But anyone who was in that cave deserved what happened to them. I witnessed it all firsthand. I won't deny you your grief at losing a member of your family, but I'm not going to apologize for seeking justice against those that have caused incalculable harm towards Mewnie citizens."

He didn't respond.

Eclipsa turned to walk towards the cave. "At any rate, we're first going to scan everything on this side of the barrier, and then we'll figure out what might be on the other side of the barrier. Let's get moving."

The two men walked back to the tent to grab their own backpacks.

As they entered the cave, Eclipsa called attention to the shape of the cave itself, using the light from her wand to illuminate the terrain: "Both times that I've been here, the layout of the cave has been different. It's my understanding that the walls will self-rearrange as we move through them. So it's not going to be helpful to try to sketch every last detail of the layout. Try to focus on landmarks and intersections. My theory is that there are constants in the layout of this cave that never get altered, even as everything else around them shift and reorient."

"There's no chance we might get trapped by the walls, is there?" The Lawyer asked.

"There's certainly a chance," Eclipsa began, "but I don't think it's terribly likely. The cave isn't designed to be a trap. It's more like..." She paused to consider what she knew. "It's more like the geometry is simply alien to our world. I don't believe the cave is any kind of maze or labyrinth, but rather that we're simply unable to comprehend the underlying structure of the cave, and from our perspective, it merely  _appears_  labyrinthine."

"That's not exactly a comforting thought."

Eclipsa shrugged. "It is what it is."

Star could feel Marco stirring next to her, as Eclipsa continued walking through the cave, followed by her assistants. "Hey, how are you doing?" She asked.

Marco's voice sounded somewhat distant, through the filtering of the Mirror. "Better than last night. Sorry about... All that."

She tussled his hair a bit. "It's okay. I'm reviewing stuff involving Eclipsa again. Do you want me to bring you in?"

She couldn't see him, but she felt him shake his head. "No. I really don't want to see any of that horror show."

"Alright."

She felt him get up from the bed. "I'm going to ask the servants to bring some food up here so you can keep doing your thing."

"Thanks."

Star refocused her eyes, and saw that Eclipsa and her team had gotten to the barrier.

"Alright," Eclipsa began, "We're here, and..." She scanned beyond the barely-visible barrier. "I don't... See... anything?"

The lawyer approached her. "That's good, right?"

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "If I left them to die in there, would you expect to see nothing?"

"... Ah."

Eclipsa raised up her wand, and looked at the two men. "You two are armed, right?"

"Uh. We weren't told we needed to bring weapons."

Eclipsa rolled her eyes. "Alright. Stay close to me. Say something if you see something."

The four of them passed through the barrier, and they crept forwards down the hallway as they emerged into the Antechamber.

The room was darker than Star remembered it being, and Star remembered that the last time Eclipsa had been here, she'd set the room on fire with her magic. Sure enough, there were piles of charred furniture strewn about the room, and everything was completely covered in soot, verified when Eclipsa ran a finger along one of the walls.

There were no bodies in the room. This was unsurprising to Star; she'd seen the scene as it unfolded after Eclipsa's departure, but this was likely new information to Eclipsa.

More pertinently, Star could see shadows moving across the opposite walls; something Eclipsa and her team didn't seem to be aware of.

"Oh crap," Star whispered.

"What is it?" Marco asked.

"Um. I think you made the right call. This is not going to be pretty to watch."

Eclipsa stood near the center of the room. "Alright. Let's document this room, then start working on a categorization system for those other exits."

The lawyer got near Eclipsa. "This is the Antechamber you talked about?"

"Yeah. It's where they were all gathering. I think—"

There was a soft, low groan from the opposite side of the Antechamber, and Eclipsa froze in place, directing her wand to cast light in the direction of the noise.

The shadow slithered down from the wall and formed into the creature that Star remembered, all those weeks ago, when she and Marco entered the cave for the first time.

Eclipsa took up a fighting stance. "Alright, get behind me!"

The Artificer roared, and charged towards them. But unlike when Star and Marco had been attacked, it stopped abruptly, several yards in front of Eclipsa. It towered over them, bellowing angrily, but it seemed unable—or possibly unwilling—to get any closer.

However, this act was intimidating enough that the two soldiers grabbed each other in fright, and the next second, the Artificer morphed.

The thousands of teeth. The misshapen limbs, constructed out of what appeared to be internal organs. Pus oozing everywhere. A terrifying screeching sound emanating from the Artificer. Star remembered all of it, and gasped softly as she saw the true form of the Artificer expand itself before Eclipsa and her team.

At that moment, all four of them went slack-jawed in the face of seeing this monstrosity, and all them collapsed to the ground shortly afterwards.

The Artificer attempted to approach them, but this time, it definitely seemed unable to get any closer to Eclipsa. So instead, it lurched sideways, getting no closer to Eclipsa, but getting much closer to her companions. Then, it lowered its grotesque limb onto the collapsed forms of her team, smashing straight through their bodies, spreading their guts around the floor. Their heads were smashed in like they were made of butter, their bones giving no resistance against the act. Their blood and guts splattered, much of it splattering onto Eclipsa's form.

Eclipsa remained unharmed; the Artificer made numerous attempts to try to attack her, but some unseen force kept it from ever getting within striking distance of her.

Eclipsa began to stir. She looked up, and gasped at the towering abomination standing before her, screeching deafeningly and failing to strike at her.. "Oh... My god." She whispered breathlessly. "Are you guys seeing—"

She turned to her team, and when she saw the splattered remains of her team, she gasped again and bolted to her feet. "Oh fuck." She turned to the Artificer, her eyes wide. "You...!"

The Artificer roared, the room shaking as it did so.

"... Why me? Why did you leave me alive?"

The Artificer seemed to respond by making another attempt to smash Eclipsa with its limb, and the limb seemed to suddenly lurch to the side as it came down over Eclipsa, missing her entirely.

"... You can't attack me, can you?"

The Artificer continued to screech and roar.

Eclipsa grabbed her wand off the ground, and turned towards the exit back to Mewnie. Several shadows had gathered there to try to block her off, but as she approached them, they were forced to back away.

Once Eclipsa crossed the barrier, she looked back at the Artificers one last time, before breaking into a sprint out of the cave.


	58. KILL YOURSELF, HOPEFULLY

"So she lost her whole team?"

Star took a breather from the Mirror to eat with Marco. A tray of Mewnie eggs and toast had been delivered for them to eat.

Star nodded in response to Marco's query. "It was..." She shuddered, thinking about it. "I now see how close we came to death when we first entered that cave. It was able to slice through them like they weren't even there."

"But Eclipsa survived? She'd have had to, I guess."

"Yeah. The Artificer wasn't able to hurt her."

Marco blinked. "Did she get cursed?"

"She couldn't have. She survived all that crap and became the Queen of Darkness that Mewnie remembers her as. That can't really happen if she, you know, dies before any of it."

Marco set down his fork. "Unless she found a way to cure it."

"I don't… hang on."

Star got up and fetched Eclipsa's journal from next to her bed. It had been awhile since they'd opened it up, and Star scanned until she found the section on the Doom Curse.

"Right… Okay. When an Artificer casts the Doom Curse, it has to make touch contact with the victims, and once the curse is cast, it annihilates itself. Neither of those things happened. It certainly tried to attack Eclipsa, but it was like… Like it was trying to bash against a forcefield of some kind. No matter what it did, it couldn't get near her."

Star glanced at the Mirror, then grabbed it and propped it up next to her and Marco.

"Why couldn't the Artificer attack Eclipsa in that moment?"

The Mirror rendered a response very quickly. "BECAUSE AT THAT TIME, ECLIPSA HAD NO STRINGS ATTACHED TO HER."

Star blinked. "What? What do you mean?"

"WHEN ECLIPSA PERFORMED AND SUBSEQUENTLY BOTCHED THE CURSE AGAINST THE ARTIFICERS, THE ACT SET OFF A CATACLYSM IN THE FIELD WITHIN WHICH FATE STRINGS RESIDE. FOR THE ENTITIES MOST PROXIMAL TO THE DETONATION, THE ARTIFICERS, THEIR VERY BEINGS REACTED WITH THE FATE MANA THEY HAD BEEN IMBUED WITH, AND THEY WERE CORRUPTED AND TRANSFORMED. FOR ECLIPSA, WHO HAD NEARED THE ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE AT THE TIME OF THE DETONATION AND NO LONGER HAD ANY FATE MANA ATTACHED TO HER, THE DETONATION SIMPLY STRIPPED ALL HER STRINGS AWAY, RENDERING HER IMMUNE TO THE ARTIFICERS. BEINGS WELL BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY OF THE DETONATION HAD SOME OR MANY OF THEIR STRINGS ALTERED OR DESTROYED. THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF HER IMMUNITY IS THE SPACIAL PERCEPTION THAT THE ARTIFICERS WERE UNABLE TO INTERACT WITH HER."

"She had all her Strings stripped away? Doesn't… Isn't that like a really bad thing?"

"A BEING THAT LOSES ITS STRINGS BECOMES UNFETTERED. FATE, AND MOST FORMS OF FATE MAGIC, CANNOT AND WILL NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON A BEING THAT HAS HAD ITS STRINGS STRIPPED AWAY, UNTIL THEY ACQUIRE NEW STRINGS, WHETHER THROUGH THE NATURAL PROCESS THAT ALL LIVING BEINGS ACQUIRE STRINGS, OR ELSE THROUGH FATE MAGIC."

Star raised an eyebrow. "It seemed like Eclipsa was still paralyzed by seeing the Artificer, though."

"THE PARALYSIS AND APPEARANCE OF THE ARTIFICERS IS A PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE BROUGHT ON BY HER SENSES. BEING IMMUNE TO THEM DOESN'T PREVENT THOSE EFFECTS."

Star took a bite of her toast. "It seems like an advantage." She looked at Marco. "If Marco and I had our Strings stripped away, would that save us from the Curse?"

"THE CURSE WOULD BE UNABLE TO HAVE ANY FURTHER EFFECT ON EITHER OF YOU. THOUGH THIS DEVICE DETECTS NO POTENTIAL FUTURE SPACES WHERE YOU ACHIEVE THE ABILITY TO STRIP YOURSELF OR MARCO DIAZ OF YOUR STRINGS, THAT WOULD LIKELY UNDO THE EFFECTS OF THE CURSE ON YOU BOTH. IT WOULD ALSO HAVE A TREMENDOUS RANGE OF OTHER EFFECTS. FOR EXAMPLE: YOU WOULD LIKELY LOSE YOUR MANDATE TO RULE, AS YOUR STATUS AND TITLE AS PRINCESS OF MEWNIE ARE A POWERFUL STRING BOUND TO YOU. HAVING THAT STRING DESTROYED WOULD UNTETHER YOU FROM THE EFFECT FATE HAS ON YOUR FUTURE, INCREASING THE LIKELIHOOD THAT EVEN AN INSIGNIFICANT EVENT WOULD JEOPARDIZE YOUR RULE."

Star gulped down some water. "Hmm." She thought for a moment. "So that's why everything ended up going so badly for Eclipsa after all this stuff ended, with respect to Mewnie. Like, I'm sure she made her own mistakes, but if she still had those Strings attached to her, Fate would have buffered her."

Marco glanced at the Mirror. "I still don't really get how 'Fate' changes things. Like, not trying to badmouth her or anything, but it sounds like Eclipsa got run out because no one liked how she was ruling. Did Fate make her rule badly? Or, more precisely: was she only a good ruler because Fate was guiding her actions, and was she actually really bad at it?"

The Mirror started rendering a response, but Star was pretty sure she already knew the answer: "Marco, you remember when the wall collapsed, and you almost got crushed?"

Marco got a little pale. "I try not to think about it too much."

"We have specialty-trained engineers responsible for both constructing and maintaining the palace. They are meticulous in their management of palace upkeep and repairs, and even have a bunch of redundancies and safeguards to prevent mistakes." She narrowed her eyes. "Mom told me that, somehow, despite their years of training, all their redundancies and safeguards, the exact spot that collapsed somehow got neglected, even as the rest of the wall around it was properly inspected. The logs going back about a month showed that that tiny part of the wall missed inspection the whole time." Star folded her arms. "They're only Mewman. They make mistakes. But they made the exact same mistake, every day, for a whole month, and no one caught it?"

"… Someone wanted to hurt me?" Marco asked, not following Star's train of thought.

"No. It was  _coincidence_. Sheer, absurdly improbable coincidence. That's how Fate, and Fate Magic, works. This curse works by 'Fating' you to die, which means making things that should be one in a million chances, or even one in a billion chances, into even odds, or better. It works in reverse when you're fated to be good at something, or fated to hold a specific title." She looked out the window. "All people, royalty or otherwise, make mistakes. I know that better than anyone. For normal people, those mistakes add up―they weigh your potential down. But when you're royalty, your mistakes get swept under the rug, or they it turns out it really wasn't a mistake." She blinked. "It's like a form of Privilege, really. But instead of being on a social or political level, it's on a Cosmological level."

Marco shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. Eventually, he glanced at the Mirror and read its response. "The Mirror seems to feel you're right."

Star smiled. "It's one of the things I learned from all that studying."

He toyed with his food. "So stuff like that is going to keep happening. And it's going to get worse as we get closer to..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"Yeah." Star glanced down at her food. "That's part of what's been slowing down my studying. I've been asking the Mirror to alert me when it finds something that should be nearly infinitely improbable is likely to happen. So far it's all been mundane stuff, but my theory is that if something major happens, we'll catch it before it kills you."

Marco ate his food silently.

"Sorry," Star said, realizing how cavalier she had sounded. "I just mean..."

"It's good to be prepared. You're doing the right thing, Star. Thank you."

Star nodded, and swallowed the last of her food. "You know… Now that I stop to think about it… Would things really be so bad, if all those Strings were cut? Not just ours, but… Everyone's. Everyone in the whole world… The whole universe."

Marco glanced around the room. "You'd be vulnerable to getting dethroned."

"Okay, yeah. It wouldn't necessarily be good for me, but… it's weird that I get to rule simply because that's what my mom was, you know? I mean, at best, my qualifications to lead are that I've been surrounded by royalty my whole life. But I'm not the smartest person in Mewnie. I'm not the most noble. I'm not the most respected. Wouldn't it make more sense to let someone who was any or all of those things lead instead?"

Marco shrugged. "I see your point, but it seems like you could accomplish the same thing by dismantling the Monarchy. I don't think you need to resort to destroying all the Fate Strings."

"Maybe."

Star gulped the last of her drink.

"Alright. There's still more regarding Eclipsa I want to dig into."

"Your studying though..."

Star shook her head. "You told me once it was bad to study the same thing too much for too long, especially if you're having trouble with it. And I am having trouble with it. I just need to shift my brain to a different task for a little while. I'm not going to procrastinate, I promise. I feel nauseous if I so much as spend too much time in the shower."

"I trust you, Star."

For once, Star felt like Marco really meant it.

* * *

The Bubble formed in Eclipsa's room, behind which was the portal, and Eclipsa stepped through, her eyes wide and blank, her whole body covered in blood.

Lily was lying on the bed, flipping through a scrapbook. "Hey, you're back." She got up and turned around. "How did―Oh my god!"

Eclipsa blinked, as though she were coming out of a daze. "What? Where..." She focused her eyes and looked a Lily, who was staring in horror. "Oh. Right. Lily. Sorry, I… I'm a little out of it right now."

"What happened to you?!"

"What… happened? What do you mean, I…?" Eclipsa stepped in front of her mirror, looked at herself, and stared at her reflection. "Ah." She reached for some of the blood on her cheek, and scraped it off, examining it between her fingers. "I wonder if this was the Lawyer, or one of the two soldiers…"

"What did you do?!"

Eclipsa tilted her head, still facing her reflection. "I feel like it would be more appropriate to talk about what I didn't do. I didn't do my proper research. I didn't make proper precautions. I'll have to remember that in the future, so that I don't get other people killed for no reason." She continued to stare at herself. "That seems like a good thing to remember."

Lily got up and stood next to Eclipsa, worry plastered on her face. "Eclipsa? Please, honey… Snap out of it! Talk to me!"

Eclipsa continued to stare at herself, rubbing her cheek with her finger. "Lily, please excuse me. I seem to have dirtied myself while I was out. It would be good if I go and shower."

Without missing a beat, Eclipsa immediately began to take her clothes off as she walked towards her bathroom, leaving the blood-soaked clothes on the ground where she walked, making no effort to collect them for washing or even show concern for where they fell. Star averted her gaze, glad that she hadn't brought Marco into this vision.

Lily began to pick up Eclipsa's discarded clothes and gather them in a corner of the room for cleaning later. Then, she followed Eclipsa into the bathroom. Eclipsa had walked into her bathtub, turned it on, and allowed the water to simply run onto her face. Lily touched the water, and pulled back; Star could tell from the sound the water was making tub that it had to be pretty cold.

"Eclipsa, please… What happened?"

Eclipsa blinked several times. Then, she suddenly lurched forwards and screamed, causing Lily to cover her ears in instinct.

"Eclipsa!"

Eclipsa began to hyperventilate, and dragged her hands down her face. "I… Oh god. I fucked up, Lily. I fucked up so badly. And because of me… They're dead now. They're dead because I fucked up. If I'd just gone on my own, or if I'd just taken the barest minimum of precautions… They would still be alive."

Lily threw her arms around Eclipsa, hugging her tightly, getting her own clothes wet.

Slowly, Eclipsa reached with her hand to grip Lily's arm. Lily adjusted her stance so that Eclipsa could hold her hand.

"The Artificers. They're still alive."

Lily didn't say anything in response.

"The barrier is keeping them in there. For now. I don't know how long it'll take before they find a way to break it. Or sneak past it."

Lily continued to hug Eclipsa.

Eclipsa seemed to be coming down from her trauma at this point, and she adjusted the water to heat it up. "Lily. It's not over. I was such a fool."

Lily nodded, silently.

"I… I promised you I wouldn't mess with this stuff anymore, but… If I leave them be… They're not just a passive threat to the kids who want to go home, who would have to pass through the cave. If I leave them be, they'll pose a threat to Mewnie. I created a possible apocalypse."

"What are you going to do, Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa had a pleading look on her face, and she looked directly at Lily, the both of them soaked with water.

Lily closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. "I told you that I would support you no matter what. That hasn't changed."

"But... I promised you that I would be done with all this. I..."

Lily shook her head. "The situation has changed. I'm capable of acknowledging that."

Eclipsa nodded, then returned Lily's hug. "You're too good for me," she said, quietly.

Lily smiled. "I know." She broke the hug and leaned back, using a towel to dry herself off. "You didn't answer my question, though."

Eclipsa shook her head, wiping her matted hair out of her eyes. "Right, sorry. What was it again?"

"What are you going to do?"


	59. SO AM I

_To be blunt, I consider your actions to be shocking._

_WHY?_

_Well, this whole time, you've been content to essentially presume that I don't exist; and that if I were to exist, I'd be too contemptible to engage with. The irony, of course, is not lost on me._

_SPARE ME YOUR HYPOCRISY. THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED._

_You realize that's too vague an excuse? I don't keep abreast of the ground situation._

_THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP BEING A LAZY FUCKER AND PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT'S HAPPENING._

_Do not speak to me that way._

_OR WHAT? YOU'LL DESTROY ME? YOU AND I BOTH KNOW YOU WON'T DO THAT. YOU STILL NEED TO BALANCE THE NUMBERS, AND IF I DIE BEFORE THE BOY DOES, YOU'LL COME UP SHORT. YOUR LITTLE TRANSGRESSIONS WILL GET AUDITED, AND THEN MOTHER WILL FIND OUT WHAT YOU DID._

_There's no chance of that._

_THE GIRL IS GETTING CLOSE TO THE TRUTH. HE LED HER BACK INTO THE CAVE. SHE LEARNED SOMETHING THERE, THAT SHE WON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT._

_That's not possible. He has his directives. He cannot disobey them, no matter how hard he tries._

_SHE FOUGHT AND KILLED BROTHER WITHOUT SO MUCH AS BREAKING A SWEAT. NONE OF THE OTHERS WERE ABLE TO DO THAT. EVEN THE BITCH HAD TO PUT ACTUAL EFFORT INTO IT. SOMETHING ISN'T ADDING UP._

_I'll concede that her actions have been unusual for someone with Strings like hers. But surely you understand that cleverness is one of those natural irritants associated with youth? Young people find clever solutions to complicated problems. Is that so much less believable than insinuating that one of my most reliable and trustworthy servants is so careless as to accidentally enable her to do this?_

_HOW ABOUT 'INTENTIONALLY' ENABLING HER?_

_As I said before, he has his directives. They cannot be violated._

_WELL WHAT IF ONE OF THOSE DIRECTIVES HAS BEEN MANIPULATED?_

_Impossible._

_I WATCHED HER AS SHE WAS REVIEWING WHAT THE BITCH DID. THE BITCH DID SOMETHING TO HIM. I THINK SHE DESTROYED THE PART OF HIM THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO KEEP HIM QUIET._

_Do you have any evidence?_

_HOW COULD I POSSIBLY HAVE EVIDENCE, IN THE STATE I'M IN?_

_You know what I mean._

_THE TWO OF THEM ARE THEMSELVES CERTAIN THAT HE IS ASSISTING THEM._

_That hardly means anything. They're mortals. They can be made to believe any number of fanciful things at the slightest provocation with the barest minimum of evidence._

_SO? IF YOU'RE HIDING BEHIND A CURTAIN, AND I, HOLDING A GUN, PULL IT BACK, POINTING OUT THAT I HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING YOU WERE BEHIND IT DOESN'T STOP ME FROM SHOOTING YOU._

_You're circling around the point. Your assertion of the threat we're facing is predicated on the presumption that he's helping them. Even if we assume that he's been doing exactly that, there's no threat. They don't have the potential or abilities they would need to change anything. He'd have to violate virtually all of his directives to change anything._

_AND WHAT IF HE DOES?_

_I don't even know what you're expecting me to do in that situation._

_CUT HIM OFF. KILL HIM. SOMETHING. ANYTHING._

_Why would you think I have the power to do something like that?_

_YOU CREATED HIM._

_He is a tremendously valuable assistant, and has been, even while separated from me. And I created him knowing there would never be a situation where he would turn rogue._

_THEN YOU'RE PRETTY SHITTY AT 'KNOWING' THINGS._

_You know, it was arrogance like that that landed you in this situation in the first place._

_NO, IT WAS YOUR COMPLACENCY THAT LANDED ME IN THIS SITUATION. IF YOU'D HAVE CUT HIM OFF ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, BEFORE THE BITCH STARTED USING HIM, WE'D HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TAKE HER DOWN BEFORE SHE COULD DO ANYTHING._

_My job isn't to cater to your personal whims. Not you, nor anyone else. My job is to protect the Status Quo._

_BULLSHIT._

_Excuse me?_

_BULL. SHIT. DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW? DO YOU THINK I HAVEN'T SPENT MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE SEEING YOUR HANDIWORK? YOU WANTED THIS. YOU STEERED THINGS IN OUR FAVOR BECAUSE YOU LIKED WHAT WE WERE DOING. AND I'M NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT IT. BUT DON'T PRETEND YOU WERE 'JUST DOING YOUR JOB' THEN, AND THAT YOU SOMEHOW HAVE AN EXCUSE TO NOT KEEP DOING IT ANYMORE NOW._

…  _Well, it's like you said before. I have numbers to balance._

_UH-HUH._

_What are you expecting to hear from me?_

_WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF?_

_I'm not scared of anything._

_THEN LET ME REPHRASE THAT: WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO PREVENT? WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU'D RISK LETTING MOTHER FIND OUT WHAT YOU DID?_

_I'm not risking anything._

_YOU'RE LETTING HIM AID THE GIRL. YOU COULD STOP HIM. DON'T PRETEND YOU CAN'T._

…

_I'M WAITING._

_She―the one you keep calling Mother―she's suspicious of me. Of you. Of all of this. The ground situation isn't the only one that changed._

…  _SO IT FINALLY COMES OUT._

_Despite everything, I think you and I agree that we're on the same side. Or at least that we have mutually cooperative goals._

_IF WE ARE, IN FACT, ON THE SAME TEAM, THEN LISTEN TO YOUR FUCKING TEAMMATE WHEN I TELL YOU THAT HE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED. THE 'HOW' IS UP TO YOUR DISCRETION. BUT THE WHY IS THAT IF YOU DON'T STOP HIM, THE GIRL IS GOING TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT, AND I'M NOT EAGER TO FIND OUT WHAT NEW TALENTS WILL SPRING FORTH FROM HER AS SHE DOES SO._

_You're distressed. If it means that you'll quit pestering me, I'll keep an eye on the situation._

_THAT'S THE BARE MINIMUM OF WHAT YOU NEED TO DO._

_I'm in control of everything. I have contingencies for everything, even the possibility that she finds a way to break the contract. Do you understand, now?_

_FOR BOTH OUR SAKES, I HOPE YOU'RE NOT LYING JUST TO PLACATE ME._

_Do I seem stressed out to you? Do I seem like I'm worried about anything falling through? It's because even in the absurd scenario where she does the literal impossible, I have an organized response._

_SUPER. I'M CERTAIN NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN DESTROYED BY THEIR OWN PRIDE BEFORE._

_Don't put me on your level. You don't know what I can do. What I've refrained from doing out of my own sense of respect and honor. What I won't hesitate to do if things escalate._

_SO SCARY._

_I'm tired of this conversation._


	60. UH OH

Day 13.

After a calibration, Star posed the same familiar question to the Mirror: "What are Marco's odds of surviving the curse?"

"0.1002."

"How's my progress on learning Fate Magic?"

"1.0014."

Star sighed. "I guess I'm ahead of pace, but..."

She rolled over and was momentarily startled to see Marco sleeping next to her. Then she remembered that she'd crawled in with him the previous night after a long day of trying to work her way through learning about Fate Magic.

"Right..."

She held out her hand to stroke his hair, but stopped it halfway to his head, and slowly retracted her hand.

_Things are getting worse._

Star sighed quietly, feeling sick. Then, pushing her feelings down, she grabbed the phone the Diaz's had gotten for her months and months ago, grabbed her dimensional scissors, walked into the bathroom, and closed the door. Using the scissors, she cut open a small portal to Earth, and held the phone near the portal until she had a signal. Then, she texted a quick message, "is this an okay time for me to call you?" and sent it to Jackie.

About a minute passed, and Star considered closing the portal, when she got a response back. "what's up, b-fly?"

Star tapped the interface to start a call, and held the phone up to herself. She heard Jackie's voice come through the receiver, sounding somewhat stronger than she had the last time Star had spoken to her. "Hey."

"Hi Jackie. How are things going for you?"

"Man, you guys have some really good medicine. Like, I still don't have all my motor control back yet, but the painkillers they gave me really worked wonders, and I'm not even dealing with withdrawal symptoms now that I'm off them!"

Star chuckled softly. "That's good. I'm glad to hear that."

Jackie's voice got very somber as she next spoke: "how's Marco doing?"

Star hesitated for a moment, before committing to a specific response: "the Mirror tells me that he has a 10% chance of surviving the curse, and like a 0.04% chance of me completely getting rid of the curse."

"… Oh."

Star sighed. "I mean, for what it's worth, both those numbers are higher than what the Mirror was telling me even a week ago, but..."

"Star… Why are you calling me?"

"I..." Star felt less sure about her reasoning than she did when she had the idea to call her. "I don't know. I had this stupid idea, and thinking about it now makes it seem even more stupid..."

"It's okay. Just say it." Her voice sounded reassuring.

"I'm trying to keep my spirits up, and Marco's, but well, I'm feeling... not confident. And while I still plan to do everything possible to save him… I guess I also want to… Make him feel less terrible. And despite how you broke things off with him, I feel like he'd feel less terrible if you were to come visit him, or if we were to come visit you, or… I know it sounds stupid."

Jackie sighed, though the sigh sounded somewhat more upbeat than somber. "You know, Star. You're such a good friend that it's killing me. Almost literally, as the case was a month ago, but figuratively as well."

Star frowned. "What do you mean?"

"How do I put this… Okay. I'm not going to assume what Marco wants. From the way you're talking, it sounds like you didn't run this idea in front of him first. Which… whatever. I don't think he'd oppose it. But… What do you think he really needs right now?"

Star shrugged. "Hope? Someone to hug him and kiss him and tell him everything is going to be alright?" She curled up her knees. "I dunno. That's what I want, and I'm not even the one dying!"

Now Jackie sounded exasperated. "I mean… You know… Are you not able to do that yourself?"

Star blinked. "I… We're friends, that would be―"

"Oh come on, Star!" Jackie exclaimed. "Aren't you like, in love with him or something?"

Star felt her cheeks blush. Marco already knew that, but it was still weird learning that someone else had figured it out. "How did you know?"

"Look, Marco might need to be hit over the head before he realizes simple things, but to the rest of us, it was pretty obvious. Why else did you think I had to―" Jackie's voice halted abruptly. "I mean… I told you about those texts I sent him, didn't I?"

Star sighed. "Full disclosure, Jackie. I actually read those texts. I asked the Mirror to show them to me weeks ago."

Jackie was silent for a moment, then Star heard a quiet chuckle. "And you still want to be friends with me, after all that gross stuff I sent him?"

Star shrugged. "To be honest, I agreed with Marco: things got crazy, and it sounds like things have been kind of out of control for you, even before I blew up your spine. I didn't think it was fair to hold that stuff against you."

"See, that's what I'm talking about, Star! You're way too good of a friend! I step aside, leave the two of you alone in an entirely different dimension from Earth, and you're still putting me before yourself. Like, are you trying to make yourself miserable?"

Star almost felt the literal sensation of gears clicking into place in her head. "Wait…" Star made sure to keep her voice down to ensure Marco didn't hear her. "You left him… Because you  _expected_  me to date him instead?"

"I mean… Look. I ended things with Marco because it was really obvious that in the state we were both in, we couldn't emotionally support each other. In my case, I literally couldn't support him. You know, barely can move my arms and what. And seeing the way you were pining after him… For a while, it upset me, because I was beginning to question whether my relationship with Marco was genuine. But when the two of you got back from the cave, after you both went missing, and I saw how much you two were supporting each other… In a way that I simply couldn't for Marco, I guess I had a sort of epiphany about what I needed in my life, what Marco needed, and what you needed, and it was clear to me that the both of you needed me to be gone."

Star furrowed her brow. "You say that, but… Marco was really upset you left him."

Jackie sounded somber. "And he's allowed to feel that way. I didn't feel good about the way things ended. I don't like hurting people."

"And, despite how I feel for him..." Star closed her eyes. "It really doesn't feel like he could ever like me back the same way."

"Well, I can't tell you whether he could or not. I never wanted to talk to him about his relationship with you. It was just a question I didn't want the answer to. Look. This is all incidental anyways. What I'm telling you, Star, is that regardless of whether he could ever feel something for you, romantically speaking, you two already have a pretty special relationship. And what I felt, deep in my heart, especially once I knew that Marco was dying, was that that relationship needed to be strong to save him."

"That's…" Star tugged at her hair. "Look, I loved stories as a kid where the power of love was literally strong enough to break terrible curses, but… We're not living in a fairy tale. I mean, for god's sake, we're literally fighting a curse―the sole effect of which appears to be turning our very reality into a living nightmare―imbued upon Marco by a member of a centuries-old rape cult! And yes, I do mean literally, not figuratively!"

Jackie snorted. "Dude, I don't know what kinds of Fairy Tales they have in Mewnie, but to be totally honest, that sounds like a pretty typical Earth Fairy Tale."

"… Are you serious?"

"Look, I don't know if Marco ever showed you any Disney movies, but if you look up the old Fairy Tales those movies were based on, they get really hardcore. Earth Culture is really messed up."

"So is Mewnie Culture, really." Star glanced at the door. "So what, you think I should kiss him and see if the curse just magically goes away?"

"I mean, it couldn't hurt. If nothing else, maybe it'll make his final weeks more pleasant." Jackie's voice got quiet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get morbid."

"That's okay. I think having a morbid sense of humor is the only thing that's going to keep us sane as we get close to the end." She glanced at the door again. "I'll bring it up to him. I think the power of love only works if both parties love the other, though. I don't expect much in terms of results."

"Well, I'm rooting for you, Star. Despite everything, I genuinely think that's your―and his―best shot at happiness, regardless of whether you find a way to save him or not."

Star smiled. "What about you?"

"I… I've got my own issues to deal with. I plan to deal with them."

Star grimaced, and shifted the phone to her other ear to let her arm rest. "Listen. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But there is a question that's been on my mind ever since I found out about those text messages. You hinted to me that it involved something to do with your parents. What was going on that day?"

Jackie was quiet for long enough that Star had to check to make sure the call hadn't dropped. "My parents are… they fight a lot."

Star shivered slightly. "Does Marco know that?"

"I've complained about them several times to him, but I never really gave him a complete picture of the situation. Part of it's because it didn't use to be so bad. But like… I don't really remember when it escalated, I feel like it was like three or four months ago… They just started going at each other. Like every other night. It was awful."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"The funny thing is, they've been a lot better ever since I got injured. I'm not saying I'm grateful that you attacked me, but… I honestly don't think they've fought since I got injured. It's like seeing me hurt snapped them out of whatever it was that was messing them up."

"That's good, I guess."

"Anyways. The night I went off on Marco, while the two of you were missing, my parents had had a particularly awful night fighting each other, and I'd almost gotten to sleep when I realized my dad had entered my room. He was sitting at my desk, staring… Not quite at me, but near to where I was sleeping. It really freaked me out. And I could hear him mumbling something. I thought he was having a seizure or something. He then started yelling something really loudly, and then, like he hadn't done anything unusual at all, he suddenly got up, said good night, like he normally does, and walked out of the room."

Star blinked. "That's… Really weird, Jackie."

"You're telling me! So I was completely spooked by that, and completely unnerved, and I'd already been dealing with insecurities, and… Whatever. I don't want to make excuses for what I did. It was still really gross, those things I sent Marco."

Star shrugged, moving the phone back to her other ear. "So that was what was happening, then?"

"Yeah. I still get nightmares about that particular night. It was just so… eugh. And I can't quite remember what he said, it was like… ' _cut the Strings, must cut the Strings_ '..."

Star felt a cold wave run through her whole body, as she remembered what Not!Eclipsa had said, and repeated the words out loud, " _Only Strings can Cut Strings._ "

"Wait… Yeah, that was it! Holy crap, how did you know that?"

Star gasped, and began trembling. "Jackie, are you sure that's what he said?"

"The moment you said it, I immediately remembered the whole thing! Does that phrase mean anything to you? What does it mean?"

"I… I have no idea, Jackie. But it has to do with Fate Magic, I think! The stuff I'm trying to learn to save Marco."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Why would your dad know something like that?"

"I have no idea!"

* * *

Star's mind raced.

Jackie's parents had begun fighting several months ago, before Star and Marco had gone to the cave to get the Mirror.

… But not  _that_  much earlier than when they had left.

It was still an open question how Star had learned about the Mirror in the first place. The Mirror had told them that the Artificers had astrally projected the information into Star's head, but Not!Eclipsa had been skeptical of that claim, because she didn't think the Cave connected directly to Earth.

Star glanced at the portal she was using to keep her phone connection active.

It wasn't unreasonable to suggest that the Artificers had simply taken advantage of a hole like that to get their message to Earth. And it was awkward to think that the Mirror had straight-up lied about how they astrally projected to Star; even if they knew now that the Mirror wasn't being 100% honest about some things, it was uncomfortable and inconvenient to think the Mirror might have lied about something as mundane as this.

Except…

Star narrowed her eyes.

Fate had been wary of Star's offer when she tried to trade her life for Marco's. But it didn't seem like it took all that much to convince him to make that deal with her. If the Mirror  _did_  lie about something like this, it would have to be because it needed to not get in trouble with Fate.

But that didn't make sense. Fate wasn't personally involved with their situation; his involvement was tangential and circumstantial. He barely knew they existed, beyond whatever cursory knowledge a God would have at their disposal, before Star…

…!

Wait.

He knew her name.

He knew what she wanted when she came there.

And…

He seemed… Surprised… When Marco blurted out the odds that he and Star were going to survive the curse.

Was he shocked that there was a chance they might both survive? Well, obviously, yes… But why? Was he shocked that  _anyone_  could survive a curse like that? Or was he specifically shocked that  _they_  might survive?

He insisted, when Marco called him out, that he wasn't " _personally analyzing their Strings_ ", but…

"Jackie?" Star finally said. "For entirely different reasons, is it okay if Marco and I come visit you? I think we need to talk with one or both of your parents."

"Yeah. I too am suddenly curious about what's going on."


	61. HE'S SUCH A TERRIBLE PLANNER

Star emerged from the bathroom, tucking her phone away and striding over to the table where the Mirror was sitting. Marco sat up, with a sleepy expression his face that quickly turned to worry as he saw the intense expression on Star's face. "What's the matter?" He asked.

Star stopped in front of him, trying (and failing) to soften her expression. "We need to make a field trip. It's kind of complicated." She took a moment to gather her thoughts. "Okay. So I mentioned to you that I met a memory of Eclipsa in the cave the last time I went there, and she gave me a big clue towards finding a way to save you, and it involved the phrase 'Only Strings can cut Strings'. Now, I still don't know what that means, and the Mirror still can't help me figure it out, but I was just on the phone with Jackie, and she admitted to me that right before she sent those gross text messages to you, you was perturbed by her father acting extremely strangely, and at one point, he uttered the exact phrase 'Only Strings can cut Strings'."

Marco's face passed through several wildly variant expressions as Star relayed this information. "What does that mean? Is he associated with the Artificers somehow?"

Star shuddered. "God, I really hope not. But I don't think so, anyways. I think..." She gathered her thoughts again. "This is the reason I want to speak with him, because I want to know if he knows anything. See, we still haven't figured out how I learned about the Mirror in the first place. The Mirror told us that an Artificer astrally projected to me, from the cave, implanting the information into my head. Eclipsa, or rather, Eclipsa's memory, didn't think that was possible, because she doesn't think the cave leads directly to Earth, in the same way that it leads directly to Mewnie. And now I know that Jackie's parents started getting really angry and aggressive towards each other not long before we made our trip there."

She took a deep breath.

"So… I know this is all speculation. I know that we've got a thousand other things to pay attention to, and this could all be a red herring. But why would anyone other than us know anything about Fate Magic or anything tangentially connected to the Artificers?" Star shifted her weight. "There's a bunch of other stuff that I'm trying to figure out that this is bringing to the surface. I'll explain once we get back."

Marco's expression turned dour. "Maybe it would be better if you go without me."

Star realized what she was asking of him, and softened her expression. "I'm sorry. I didn't think." She paused for a moment. "Jackie sounded like she was okay with seeing you. Do… You want to see her?"

Marco sighed. "I…" Eventually, he shook his head. "No. I don't."

Star felt her chest tighten. "I understand where you're coming from. I just..." She shuffled around awkwardly. "Her parents aren't going to be glad to see me. I know Jackie and I patched things up, but I'm still the one responsible for crippling her. I wouldn't be surprised if they still haven't gotten over that."

"I know. But I'm sorry, I just… If I see her, it's going to hurt too much to talk to her. And if I ignore her, that'll just be worse."

Star nodded. "Alright. I understand."

Marco held out the Mirror. "You can take the Mirror. As long as you don't take more than a day, I don't mind going without it for a while."

Star bit her lip. "I'm going to ask my mom to station a servant nearby. They're not going to be able to talk to you, since you won't be able to hear what they're saying, but if you need anything, they'll be able to get it."

Marco nodded.

Star looked around helplessly, then set her wand down on her pillow. "I'm not going to need this thing while I'm gone, and I can set it to at least patch over one of your senses. Which would you most like protected while I'm gone?"

Marco slumped back in bed. "Smell."

Star blinked. "Really?"

Marco shook his head. "I can deal with things looking or sounding or feeling horrible. But having to  _smell_  it all? Ugh."

Star pulled out her own journal, double-checked the spell invocation, and then activated her wand. "Alright. I'll try not to make this take any longer than it needs to."

Holding the Mirror and her Dimensional Scissors, she cut open a portal to Earth.

* * *

She'd forgotten how much different Earth looked compared to Mewnie.

Earth was… It was almost tempting to call Earth more 'colorful' than Mewnie. Certainly there was a richness to the palette that was draped over the entirety of Mewnie that was lacking on Earth, but on Earth, there seemed to be a far greater… 'variety' of colors than what there was on Mewnie. Star had been continually impressed by the artistic achievements of Humans, and had pondered on several occasions whether their creativity was innate to the species, or a product of the world itself being more inspirational than the land she hailed from.

And given the rottenness, both cultural and political, that lay deep in her kingdom, she felt more at ease here.

Star now stood in front of Jackie's house, and knocked on the front door.

Of course, between Jackie's situation, and Janna's rants, it was pretty clear that Earth being so much better was a 'Grass is Always Greener' fallacy. Star had to remind herself of that rather often.

While she waited, Star held up the Mirror. "As part of that projection you're doing to keep my senses normal, I need you to add something. An overlay showing me when people are lying to me. Can you do that?"

"AS THIS DEVICE HAS INDICATED TO YOU PREVIOUSLY, THIS DEVICE HAS A LIMITED ABILITY TO DETECT THE HONESTY OF ANOTHER LIVING BEING."

"Do a speculation, then, if you're not able to objectively evaluate their honesty."

"ACKNOWLEDGED."

"And, uh… You don't need to qualify my lies. I can tell, usually, when I'm lying."

Jackie's mother answered the door, and her default facial expression, which seemed to be upbeat, quickly turned sour when she saw Star's face. "Oh." She simply said, a phrase which Star recognized was probably meant to sound much less confrontational and accusatory than it came across.

Star bowed before her. "Um. Hi Mrs… Thomas. I know it's probably, um..." Her voice trailed off as she found herself unable to compose words to describe what she was feeling.

Jackie's mother shifted her weight and looked away from Star. "What brings you here today?"

Star blinked. "Did Jackie tell you I was coming?"

Jackie's mother narrowed her eyes. "She did not."

"Ah."

Star could vaguely hear the sound of wheels rolling across a hardwood floor, and moments later Jackie, sitting in a wheelchair, slowly rolled into sight. She looked a lot more calm, but still visibly unhappy. "Hey Star." She craned her neck as much as her limited mobility would allow her to look behind Star. "Is… Did Marco come with you?"

Star folded her arms. "Things are still too awkward for him. I tried to talk him into coming along, but with how things are right now, I didn't want to push him too hard."

Jackie nodded sadly. "Yeah, I think I understand. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about seeing him too. I wasn't prepared for what to say to him."

Jackie's mother pivoted in place to face Jackie. "Jackie. Did you know Princess Star was coming to visit?"

"Relax. She called me like 15 minutes ago. I didn't think she was going to come here that quickly."

Star raised up her hands. "If this is a bad time, I can come back later. I have a pretty full schedule all the time these days, but that's self-imposed study time. I can rearrange my schedule any way needed."

Jackie shook her head, smiling. "No, now is fine." Her smile faded. "Mom, let her in, and go get dad. We need to sit down, the four of us, and talk."

Jackie's mom raised an eyebrow at Jackie before walking off. Jackie motioned weakly with her arm for Star to follow her, and she wheeled herself into the living room. Jackie wheeled herself up to one of the stand-alone chairs, and Star sat in the chair as Jackie wheeled herself to the side.

"Are you going to school now, even in that condition?"

Jackie nodded. "The building was proofed pretty well for handicapped people. It's fine for me. And I've got friends helping me in my classes."

"How are our classmates doing?"

Jackie raised an eyebrow. "Well, you kinda messed a lot of them up. Not physically, strictly speaking, but emotionally. Psychologically. Even though no one died, it feels like..." She got quiet. "Sorry. I shouldn't talk to you about stuff like this."

Star braced herself. "Just say it."

Jackie tepidly continued, "it feels like there was a School Shooting."

Star gulped. "I mean, in everything but the actual tools being used, that's basically accurate."

"People talk about you differently than they did before. It's not all negative, but it's always in ways that cause people to get quiet and uncomfortable."

Star slumped in her seat. "There's not really anything I can do about that."

Jackie looked up at the ceiling. "There's something massive going on, isn't there? Like, the fact that Marco might die, sure. But something way bigger than that."

"Well, that's part of the reason I'm here. I was certain, before today, that all this stuff was just local to Mewnie. That however big and terrible it was, it was isolated from Earth. I don't know that anymore."

"What..." Jackie looked anxious, as she finished her question, "… do you think you're going to find out?"

Before Star could respond, she saw Jackie's parents enter the room. Her father looked gaunt, and her mother looked pale. Star shrunk a little, feeling guilty about what she had done, but steeled herself, knowing that there were more important things at stake than her sense of guilt.

"Princess Butterfly." Jackie's father stated, flatly.

Star nodded. "You should take a seat. I'm not sure how much we need to talk about, but it's not a small amount."

They glanced at each other, then sat on the couch opposite Star and Jackie.

"Um..." Star shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. "First of all, before we go any further, I want to apologize again for what happened to Jackie. For what I did. I… I'm not going to make excuses for it. If nothing else, my fault was in not being careful and not understanding what was happening to me, and anything else I could say beyond that would only be an act of trying to reject my responsibility for what happened."

"But that's not why you came here." Jackie's dad spoke quietly.

"Honey..." Jackie's mom replied, touching his shoulder.

"No. It's not." Star leaned forwards. "What you need to understand, firstly, is that I'm trying to strike a difficult balance, between not keeping any information from you, and not overwhelming you with information, especially if it's information you don't need to know. Everything that's been happening the last several months: my and Marco's disappearance, me injuring Jackie, and a few other events we'll be discussing; they're connected. The precise manner in which they are connected is something I'm still trying to figure out." She took a breath. "How much has Jackie already told you about all this?"

Jackie's mother responded, "she told us that you and Marco were investigating some kind of mystery, and that it put his life in danger. That you're trying to save him, but whatever is hurting him is hurting you too, which caused you to..." Her voice broke off at this point.

"I don't think that's incorrect. So I'll try to fill in the blanks." Star took a deep breath. "Several hundred years ago, in my kingdom, there was a Guild of Artificers, people responsible for creating and maintaining Magical Artifacts. They were… Dangerous, despicable people. They hurt a lot of innocents, and because they were nobility, the Mewnie Government was protecting them. Up until my Ancestor, Queen Eclipsa, then Princess, started investigating them. She was able to successfully remove them from their positions of power. But she made a terrible decision in the process of doing so, and they were transformed into… I think the word 'demons' captures the concept pretty concisely. More than that, but also less than that, it's hard to explain without getting into the gory, disturbing details."

Star shuddered involuntarily as she briefly recalled what a Materialized Artificer looks like.

"Most of them were destroyed after that point, but two of them survived, and lived, for hundreds of years, until the present day. Several months ago, right before Marco and I vanished, one of them lured us into a cave, and cursed Marco. The one that did it is… Technically, I think she's dead, but..."

Star broke off her speech, remembering something she'd read in Eclipsa's journal: a theory that Eclipsa had felt was debunked, about the idea that an Artificer might be living on inside the curse, up until the point that the curse finally kills its host. For reasons she couldn't quite identify now, she wasn't as convinced as Eclipsa had been that the theory was bunk.

"Anyways. The important part is that we believe that the Artificer used some kind of Telepathic projection to lure us there." She sighed. "So in the time since we learned about all that, Marco and I have been more-or-less ignoring that part, because it didn't seem very useful to us. But something changed today."

She leaned forwards again.

"There's a turn of phrase which is popular among people associated with the Artificers," Star began, carefully choosing her words, aware that she wasn't being totally truthful. "I need both of you to be honest with me: does the phrase 'Only Strings can cut Strings' mean anything to you?"

There was a significant divergence of response from both of Jackie's parents.

Jackie's mom looked perplexed, like she was trying to strain her herself to remember something.

Jackie's dad looked haunted, like he very obviously remembered something.

Star and Jackie exchanged glances. "Mr. Thomas," Star began, "Do you remember something?"

He shuffled uncomfortably in place. "Do you… read minds?"

Star blinked. "What? No."

Strangely, he seemed relieved. "Okay. Then I'll tell you what I remember. It would have been about a week before you went missing. I was outside, admiring our garden, when I saw… I guess it looked like a window in space? It wasn't very large, maybe a foot in diameter, at most. It was just a black circle in the middle of the air."

Star raised an eyebrow, then pulled out her dimensional scissors, which she used to cut open a small portal to a random place in the Mewnie forest. "Like this?"

He gasped. "Yeah, kind of like that! Only… I can see stuff through that window. I couldn't really see through the one I saw those months ago. I was about to call to my wife, to come take a look, and the next second, I was flat on my back, and it was gone."

Star closed up the portal. "And then what?"

He shivered and looked down at the ground. "I seemed to be okay, so I went back about my business, but for weeks afterwards, I kept hearing things in my head. They were in my own voice, so I didn't think much about them, but one phrase I heard quite a few times: 'Only Strings can cut Strings'."

The overlay the Mirror had created suddenly alerted Star: "SPECULATION: HE IS NOT BEING STRICTLY DISHONEST, BUT HE IS OMITTING DETAILS ABOUT THE THOUGHTS THAT WERE GOING THROUGH HIS HEAD. CONSENSUS: 1.0000, CONFIDENCE: 0.9490."

_I'm not going to challenge that. I've got a pretty good idea of what other thoughts might have been going through his head._

Jackie's mom turned to him. "Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

"Well, it didn't really make sense to me. They weren't violent thoughts―" (The Mirror immediately informed Star that this was a straight-up lie, which Star once again didn't want to press) "―and they went away after a few weeks, so I just stopped thinking about it." (The Mirror continued to insist that this was a lie)

Star stood up. "Could you show me the spot where it happened?"

The four of them walked―or wheeled, in Jackie's case―out to the Thomas' garden. Jackie's dad took up a position near the corner of the garden. "It was about here."

Star nodded and pulled the Mirror out. She knelt down on the ground, near where the portal supposedly was, and quietly enough that no one would hear, Star said to the Mirror, "I need you to display a message to Jackie, telling her to ask her mom to take her inside. Make sure she knows this is coming from me."

Jackie visibly blinked several times, then turned to her mom. "Hey I need to use the restroom."

Jackie's mom nodded, "Okay honey." She wheeled Jackie back inside the house.

Star circled around the spot where the portal supposedly was, while Jackie's dad stood by, looking concerned. "Mr. Thomas. I'm not going to ask you what the other thoughts were, but I know the thoughts didn't go away."

He turned pale. "I..."

Star gave him a look of concern. "You were psychologically harmed by that portal. It's something that's been happening a lot; I've been feeling unlike myself for a long time now, and I'll be making sure to take my own advice when all this is over. You were right in front of the portal, so you got hit with the worst of it, but it's possible your wife and daughter were affected as well. Have any of you been talking with a psychologist?"

He shook his head. "Jackie has a doctor she's been talking to after the accident, but my wife and I have never needed therapy."

"Go hire someone for a few months. I don't think the attack against you was magical in nature, but you do need help. All three of you should be talking to someone. They won't go away until you do."

He nodded.

"Alright. I don't think I need to ask you guys any more questions. Send Jackie back out when she's done, I need to follow up with her."

"Is everything going to be okay?"

"I hope so."

He left the garden and Star held up the Mirror. "I need you to show me the moment that Mr. Thomas was talking about. Back in the past."

The Mirror began shimmering before showing Jackie's dad walking out into the garden. A few seconds into the scene, the Mirror suddenly went blank, and shortly afterwards, a message appeared: "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM SHOWING DIMENSIONAL PORTALS."

Star blinked. "What? You've shown me dozens of portals before, including those Eclipsa made."

The message shimmered in an erratic fashion, and it appeared as though the message itself was being altered: "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM SHOWING DIMENSIONAL PORTALS THAT WERE NOT CREATED BY DIMENSIONAL SCISSORS."

Star raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware anything else  _could_  create Dimensional Portals." She narrowed her eyes. "Hold up, what was on the other side of that portal, then?"

"THE DESTINATION OF THE PORTAL―" The message erased itself, then a new message appeared: "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM DISCUSSING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A DIMENSIONAL PORTAL NOT CREATED BY DIMENSIONAL SCISSORS."

_It's changing its answers in real-time._

"Alright, I guess that makes sense," Star lied.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jackie being wheeled back outside by her mother. "I got it from here," Jackie said, as she took control with her weak arms and slowly wheeled up to Star. "What's going on?"

Star sighed. "I told your dad to get himself and your mom into therapy. I didn't want to say it in front of the rest of you, because I was worried about how he would react, especially since he was lying to your mom about some of those thoughts. He was definitely hit with a psychological attack, possibly from the Artificers."

Jackie looked worried. "Why would they target my dad like that?"

"I don't think they did. I think he just happened to be standing there when the attack went off, and it had to pass through him. I don't know a ton about telepathy, but I imagine it being like getting hit with radiation or something. Which, incidentally: it's possible you were hit too. I don't know whether you were home that day or not. But it might explain why your parents were fighting so much: at least one of them was psychologically harmed. And it might even explain that text message you sent Marco."

Jackie shook her head as much as she was able. "Like you, I don't want to blame my actions on magical mind control or whatever this should be called."

Star nodded. "I'm sorry we never got along as well as we should have. I feel like we could be really good friends if we weren't dealing with all this other stuff."

Jackie smiled. "So what's the deal with the portal?"

"I'm not sure. The Mirror can't talk about it." Star kept the next thought to herself:  _but if the Mirror can't talk about it, that pretty much means Fate is involved somehow. And it wouldn't surprise me if he's the one forcing the Mirror to change its answers._ "But it did solve a question that I'd been trying to work out for a long time regarding how the Artificers telepathically got to me. I don't know the details, but I'm quite certain the portal must have gone to the Artificers themselves."

"They were able to open a portal directly to Earth?"

Star hesitated.

No. The Artificers couldn't have done that.

But maybe Fate could have. She didn't know the full extent of his abilities. He was a God after all; how much limit could there be to his power?

"I don't think they could have come here," Star said truthfully, keeping the rest to herself. "But yes, they do seem to have figured out, even if it was a one-time-thing only, how to open a portal."

"Scary."

"Well, they're all dead now,"  _except for Areana,_  "so there's not much else to worry about." Star looked around. "I should get back to Marco."

Jackie nodded. "Tell him I said hi. And good luck. Despite everything, we're all rooting for you."

"Thank you."


	62. PREPARED FOR EVERYTHING, HUH?

Star had one last quick stop to make before she went home. The Diaz residence.

The house was currently unoccupied: the Diaz parents were staying in the palace to be with their terminally ill (as far as they were aware) son, and Moon and River had permitted them to keep the puppies in another room adjacent to their bedroom.

So after stepping through a portal to get there, Star crept into the house, feeling somewhat uneasy as she entered. The house was almost spooky when no one was there.

Immediately, she noticed a rotten smell coming from the kitchen, and it didn't take long to work out where it was coming from: the trash hadn't been taken out before the Diaz's left to stay at the Palace. Star tossed the bag into the dumpster and pushed it to the curb, so that at least by the time they returned, there would be no more trash.

Especially if she didn't succeed in saving Marco. One small mercy.

Once this was taken care of, she pulled out the Mirror. "What's the distance from here to the Thomas household?"

The Mirror took a few moments to respond: "4.7 KILOMETERS."

Star nodded. "Alright. Can you show me a diagram of all the houses between the Diaz household and the Thomas household?"

"THIS DEVICE NEEDS A DEVIATION RADIUS TO CONSTRAIN THE NUMBER OF HOUSES SELECTED."

"Uhh, 'Deviation Radius'?"

"WITH AN UNBOUNDED DEVIATION RADIUS, THIS DEVICE WOULD BE FORCED TO INCLUDE EVERY SINGLE HOUSE THAT IS BETWEEN TWO PARALLEL LINES, EACH PERPENDICULAR TO THE LINE CONNECTING THE TWO HOUSES, AND POSITIONED AT THE POSITION OF EACH OF THE HOUSES. THIS WOULD IDENTIFY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HOUSES, AND IS VERY PROBABLY NOT WHAT YOU INTENDED TO REQUEST OF THIS DEVICE."

"Indeed..." Star said, quietly. "I can just say it in meters, right?"

"CORRECT."

"Make it… 150 meters then."

The Mirror rendered a diagram on itself, showing several dozen houses highlighted in the path between their two houses.

"Alright, that looks more-or-less correct." She looked at the Mirror. "I'll try to navigate around the things you're not allowed to talk about. The kind of Astral Projection the Artificer used on me: What's the likelihood, for each of those houses, that its occupants were affected in any way by the projection?"

The Mirror took a minute to render a response, then showed the same diagram again, this time with probabilities associated with each of the houses. None of them exceeded a value of "0.0037".

Star nodded. "Alright. Then it's probably safe to leave them alone, and not worry that someone else was harmed like Jackie's dad was."

The Mirror didn't respond to this.

"Alright, I need you to do one last thing for me." Star smirked slightly, a scheme in the back of her mind that she tried to make sure didn't make its way to the forefront of her mind. "I need you to scan this house, both now and for the last half a year, for any magic that occurred in or near the house, that wasn't caused by me or Ludo, or anyone working on my or his behalf."

The Mirror wasn't going to report to Star that it had detected any Magic. She was certain that only one of two possible results could occur: either the Mirror would find nothing, or it would be forbidden from responding. And if she was right…

"THIS MIRROR IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANALYZING THESE PARTICULAR MAGICAL TRACES."

"I see. I understand," Star said, attempting as much as possible to convey disappointment with her response.

She cut open a portal back to Mewnie.

* * *

When Star arrived back in her room, Marco suddenly sat up from his bed. "Okay, I know I said I didn't want to go, and I don't necessarily regret that choice, but  _man_  am I glad you're back."

Star smiled ruefully at him. "I'm sorry."

"What did you discover?"

Star set the Mirror down on the table and addressed it. "Mirror, I need you to disable Data Collection for about 15 minutes, and not attempt to collect that data after those 15 minutes are up. Can you do that for me?"

"THIS DEVICE IS ABLE; HOWEVER, DISABLING DATA COLLECTION FOR THAT DURATION WILL CAUSE THE PROJECTION THIS DEVICE IS PERFORMING ON YOUR SENSES TO DRIFT OUT OF SYNC WITH THE WORLD DATA. IT MAY CAUSE ABERRATIONS TO FORM."

"That's fine."

"DATA COLLECTION HAS BEEN DISABLED. DATA COLLECTION WILL BE RE-ENABLED IN 899 SECONDS."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "You don't want the Mirror to hear this? Didn't it see everything you did when you visited Jackie?"

"More specifically, I don't want Fate to hear it. In case, like you suspected, he can spy on us through the Mirror."

"So what did you discover?"

"Someone opened a portal in the Thomas' garden, several months ago, shortly before we went to the cave. That portal connected directly to the cave where the Artificers were located, and they used that portal to telepathically perform an Astral Projection into my head. Jackie's dad was standing adjacent to the portal at the time that it opened up, and the projection had to pass through him, which basically caused a psychological attack against him. It may have affected his whole family, which is why he and Jackie's mom started fighting, and why she was compelled to send you those gross text messages."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "I guess that explains a few things we didn't understand, but why did we need to prevent Fate from knowing that?"

"Because I think Fate is the one that opened that portal, and I don't want him to know that we know that."

Marco squinted. "Star, you're going to make my head hurt more than when I'm seeing the unfiltered world."

"I know, I know… Look." Star took a breath. "The Artificers didn't really have a choice but to target me, for several reasons. For starters, Telepathy is a really tricky kind of magic. It  _barely_  works cross-species, and even then, usually only in limited circumstances. So realistically, given that their magic is pretty haphazard and wonky to begin with, they were limited to targeting Mewmans. Maybe Humans―it seems like the biology of Mewmans and Humans is more similar than the biology of Mewmans and other sapient creatures in the universe―but even so, it definitely limited their options.

Secondly, they needed to target someone with physical access to the cave. Who has physical access to the cave? Well, someone who has Dimensional Scissors. The cave is in the middle of nowhere: traveling there takes days by foot, and they might still be accustomed to transit several centuries ago, which was even slower. So their search is now constrained to Mewmans with Dimensional Scissors.

Thirdly, they needed to target someone who wouldn't feel compelled to bring serious backup with them. The two of us are used to going on adventures together, on our own. We never would have thought of calling, say, the royal guard to join us. How many other people with Dimensional Scissors would make that kind of risk?

Finally, they needed to target someone with enough of an adventurous spirit to take 'here's the location of a strange, esoteric artifact' as sufficient justification to travel to unknown lands in search of it. Now, I'm certain there's some overlap there with 'people who own Dimensional Scissors', but when you take all those things in aggregate, I'd be willing to bet that the odds of them picking us aren't much lower than twenty-percent or so."

"Couldn't you ask the Mirror to calculate those odds?"

"Something something  _forbidden_  is what I'm assuming its response will be. The Mirror is forbidden to talk about things that involve its creator, Fate, and I'll get into that whole can of worms in a moment. The important thing is that we finally have an answer to the question of ' _why us?_ ' It never really was about us. We just fit the perfect profile for their plan."

Marco folded his arms. "Alright, so what's their plan?"

Star took another breath. "I think Fate and the Artificers were using each other, and agreed to cooperate on two different plans. The Artificers, like we learned, wanted to die. That's been their M.O. from the moment Eclipsa cursed them. Zemd told me specifically that dying by way of the Doom Curse was basically the goal of each of them, and I don't think he was lying. Based on Eclipsa's notes in her journal, it sounds like they didn't have the option of doing that for any victim they came across: many times the Artificers chose not to curse their victims, and just killed them instead. I don't know why that is. But regardless, that's definitely what they were trying to do.

Fate, then, is the wildcard in this situation. I don't know what he wants, or what he was planning, or how this helped him. Eclipsa's memory impression told me that she thought Fate 'got off' on what the Artificers were doing, and I don't think she was wrong, but it feels like there's something else going on, and that's where the Mirror refusing to talk about anything involving Fate comes into play. Because what the Mirror is conspicuously avoiding talking about is anything and everything that might possibly imply that Fate himself did  _anything_  to affect the outcome of these events. The Mirror is actively covering up his involvement in all of this."

Marco's eyes widened. "Why would it need to do that? Isn't Fate a God? Can't he just do whatever he wants?"

Star paced around the room. "I think that there's a difference between what Fate is physically capable of doing, which is practically everything―he's a god, after all―and what he's  _allowed_  to do. And I think that there's been a violation committed somewhere in the space between where those two things don't overlap. Either something he did that he's not supposed to be allowed to do, or something that he was supposed to do that he's not capable of doing himself. And  _alllllllllll_  of this, involving the Artificers, involving us, is about him making sure that he never faces consequences for it."

"How? Why? And what could he have done that's worth all this crap? What could possibly justify all those kids that were hurt? Everything that happened to Eclipsa? How much we've suffered?"

Star shook her head.

Marco leaned back. "He wants me dead. But he was willing to trade my life for yours." He narrowed his eyes. "That's not the way a benevolent person talks. It's the way someone who owes a debt talks. He owes  _a life_  to someone. Mine, yours… The details are incidental."

Star sat down on her bed. "Zemd described the curse as a kind of Contract. The Mirror doesn't think that's a correct way of looking at it. But..."

"So he's owed a life. And maybe he owes that life to someone else in kind. What happens if he doesn't get it?"

A pause hung in the air.

Eventually, Star stood up and grabbed the Mirror. It had a few more minutes until it resumed its data collection.

"The only thing I can do," she began, "is keep trying to break the curse."

At that moment, she remembered what Jackie had said.

"Um."

Marco looked up. "What?"

"It's a really bad idea, but, Jackie thought it was maybe worth a shot..."

"What is?"

Star sighed. "It's a dumb fairy tale thing, but you're cursed, and you know how I feel towards you, and..."

Marco blushed slightly. "What are you suggesting?"

"… Is it possible the curse could be cured by kissing you?"

Marco's eyes widened. He glanced at the Mirror. "Is that thing listening again? You could ask it."

"It's got a few more minutes. And… I dunno. Maybe I want the result to be a surprise?"

Marco folded his arms around his knees. "I don't feel the same way towards you that you feel towards me. Not right now, at least."

"I know," Star said, her heart sinking slightly even as she was forced to acknowledge that out loud.

"… We can still try it."

Star coughed as she inhaled some of her own saliva accidentally. "Are you sure?"

He stood up and timidly stood next to his bed. "I mean, it's not like we have a better option that we know will work already."

Star stood up, and walked over to him.

She placed one hand on his shoulder, the other above his hip.

He glanced to the side for a few seconds before looking directly at her, a nervous expression on his face. "Go ahead."

Star bit her lip briefly, scrunching up her face in anxiety.

He didn't look excited to be doing this. Certainly, in all the hundreds of scenarios where she'd imagined kissing him, none of them played out like this.

But she wasn't going to let it go to waste.

So carefully, slowly, she leaned in and allowed her lips to press against his.

And they held there for some time.

Marco's lips were rough, and dry. He needed to be drinking more water. That was pretty typical of someone who still hadn't really gotten out of bed.

The small amount of moisture that was present had a bitter taste to it, and the moment it reached Star, she felt herself sweating.

This  _definitely_  was not as exciting as she'd imagined it being.

She pulled away rather suddenly, and wiped her mouth instinctively, trying to clean her lips. She then looked at Marco, who didn't particularly look like he enjoyed the experience either.

"Um," Star finally said.

Marco squinted slightly. "Uh, Star?"

"Yeah?"

He shuffled uncomfortably. "I uh..."

Star sighed. "Just say it. Be honest."

He looked slightly guilty. "Like, I'm not trying to be mean or hurt you, but… That might be the worst kiss I've ever gotten."

Star found that really funny, to the point where she couldn't stop herself from chuckling as he said it. "I'm sorry."

He frowned. "I mean, I don't know what the rules are for ' _Magic, Curse-Breaking Kisses_ ', but I feel like if it had worked, it would have been more pleasant than that."

Star reined herself in. "I mean, we can check with the Mirror." She glanced at the Mirror. Data Collection had resumed moments before they began kissing. "Mirror. Calibrate yourself, and then give me the odds of Marco surviving this curse."

There was a blitz of incomprehensible screaming from all directions for a few seconds before the room returned to normal. After which, the Mirror reported the odds:

"0.1000."

Star slowly raised a hand to her face.

"Not… Good?" Marco asked, looking depressed.

Star peeked at him through her fingers. "It's down two hundredths of a percentage point since this morning."

"So… No effect, possibly even a negative effect."

"Yeah."

Marco nodded, then laid down. "I'm not saying it was a bad idea. But I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't try to kiss again."

"Yeah," Star replied despondently. "Yeah, I think you're right."


	63. SACRED GROUNDS

Day 12.

Star glanced out at the sunset as she finally put her journal down, filled with many more pages of notes since the morning. "Mirror, what's my progress?"

"1.0609."

Star nodded. "Alright. It would be bad if I get burned out." She stretched. "I asked you this before, and I'm certain you're going to give me the same answer again, but is there anything I should focus on to improve Marco's odds?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

_Not even trying to be subtle about it now, are you?_

Star pondered for a moment what to ask the Mirror.

"I want to take another look at Eclipsa. At the things she was doing to deal with the Artificers."

* * *

The scene formed around one of the Meeting Halls in the palace, where a large number of Mewman men and women were gathered, each looking surprisingly professional and groomed. Eclipsa and Lily were walking briskly towards the room; Eclipsa looked determined, Lily looked anxious―and dressed up in an especially formal manner.

They stopped outside the room, and Lily closed the door so no one inside would hear them talk. "… And he's going to be okay, then?" Lily asked.

"He won't remember anything that happened in the last few days. So the Queen asking him to head up recruitment will be gone, the two of us ambushing and sedating him will be gone, and when the Queen gets the notice that the new Guild has been formed, she won't care about him anymore."

Lily breathed out slowly. "I don't really like this plan, though. You know I'm no good at lying."

Eclipsa put her hands on Lily's shoulders. "You don't have to do much lying. I marked down on your clipboard the people you have to kick out. Once you've done that, come get me, and I'll take over." She looked up at the doors. "Alright. I'm going to go hide."

Star raised an eyebrow. "What's going on in this scene?"

"THE THEN-QUEEN OF MEWNIE IS ORDERING THE CREATION OF A NEW GUILD TO REPLACE THE LOST ARTIFICER'S GUILD. THE NEW GUILD IS GOING TO BE CALLED THE FABRICATOR'S GUILD, TO AVOID ASSOCIATION WITH THE PREVIOUS GUILD. ECLIPSA IS HIJACKING THE HIRING PROCESS TO TRY TO ENSURE THAT SHE CAN TAKE CONTROL OF THE NEWLY FORMED GUILD."

"Who are the people she's having Lily kick out?"

"THEY ARE MEWMANS WHO ARE AWARE OF ECLIPSA'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE ARTIFICERS' TRIAL, AND THUS LIABLE TO BECOME SUSPICIOUS OF ECLIPSA'S INVOLVEMENT IN THIS GUILD."

Star placed her hand on her head. "Alright. So I have to assume that this new guild eventually becomes the 'research team' that Eclipsa described in her journal, who helped her study the Artificers?"

"THAT IS CORRECT."

"So can we skip ahead to when the research team was properly formed? And how much time will pass between this moment and the moment we're skipping to?"

"TWENTY-SEVEN DAYS PASSED BETWEEN THESE TWO MOMENTS."

The scene transitioned to Eclipsa standing inside the old Artificer's Guild Housing, its furniture all removed and its walls and floors having been painted over with a beige color. There were now about two dozen men and women standing in the room―a significantly smaller number than before―and they were all paying attention to Eclipsa, who was in the center of the room. Lily stood behind her, a clipboard and a large number of documents clutched in her arms.

"So," Eclipsa began. "The reason all of you are still standing here today is because after my vetting process, I've determined with utmost confidence that all of you are capable of the kind of research this guild will be specializing in. However, I still need your consent to participate in this research, and in order to receive your consent, I must also make a pact with each of you. The nature of this research, like much research conducted by the other Mewnie Guilds, is strictly confidential. Any breach of that confidentiality, intentional or accidental, would jeopardize the security of this kingdom.

The terms of the Pact are very simple. You will be rendered unable to accidentally say or write any information that this Guild has deemed to be confidential. If you intentionally say or write any information that this Guild has deemed to be confidential, I will immediately know who you are and what you said or wrote. If you are in a situation where an attacker is attempting to extort that information from you, you will have access to an astral trigger which will wipe out all of your knowledge of our confidential information. This, too, will alert me to who you are and your present circumstances; I and other members of the Mewnie government will be able to recover you. If you attempt to subvert the purposes of this guild, or take advantage of its resources or political power for personal gain, this pact will make me aware of this fact.

You will be able to leave this guild voluntarily, at any time, whereupon your knowledge of this confidential information will be wiped from you, much like the Astral Trigger."

Eclipsa finally took a breath.

"The other reason all of you are still standing here today is because of my confidence in each of you that you are capable of upholding this pact. I'd like to know that my confidence wasn't misplaced, but if it was, now is the time that you should inform me of that, and go your separate ways. The Mewnie Government is always looking for qualified candidates for various other Guilds and roles, and you won't be unwelcome to any of those other positions."

She paused for several seconds. One of the men raised their hand. "Uhh, Your highness? Am I to understand this pact is magical in nature, then? How is it enforced?"

"You're correct," Eclipsa said directly, "and it's enforced through my own magic. The reserves of my Magical power are well more than enough to maintain the pact for several dozen people, even at a significant distance, and I have this," she said, tapping her Wand, "which is several magnitudes more powerful than me anyways."

"What are the consequences if we break this pact?"

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "Legal. Though it obviously depends on the severity of your actions. If you're committing high treason, I may not wait for the court system to hand down your execution sentence, and will likely carry it out myself."

"… Ah."

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "I didn't lie before. If you now stand here unconvinced that you're comfortable making that sort of pact, you're free to leave now. This is going to be difficult, dangerous work, and even for people physically, intellectually, and psychologically equipped to deal with this work, they may find it too burdensome. The only people I want here are the people who want to be here."

He nodded.

Eclipsa surveyed the other candiates. "Alright. Get in a line, I will make the pact with each of you."

Each of the new Guild members lined up, and one-by-one, Eclipsa extended her arm to them, a shadowy ribbon wrapping around her arm and the arm she was shaking to enact the pact.

When she did this with each of them, she crossed to a door. "Alright, come with me. There's a lot we need to get done today." She opened the door to reveal a large stone staircase. "This staircase is only accessible to Guild Members. Anyone who is not a member of the Guild will be physically unable to gain access to the lower level. Access will probably not be provisioned out to non-members, even for visitation purposes: anything down here represents the fundamentals of our research."

Eclipsa hung out by the door while the members filed into the stairs. Lily grabbed several documents and followed behind them before Eclipsa closed the door. Eclipsa made her way to the front of the group and began to lead them down the faintly lit stairs. "I'm sure many of you have speculated on this, so since you're now all qualified to be told state secrets, it's okay for me to tell you that this used to be the housing for the Artificer's Guild. How many of you are aware of what happened to them?"

A woman near Eclipsa spoke up: "Your Highness. I was told that―"

"Ah," Eclipsa said, cutting her off. "You don't need to continue to refer to me as Your Highness. At least not amongst each other. Obviously, you still have to use it in public. But here within the Guild Housing, or if we're in the field, it's fine to address me simply as Eclipsa." She looked at the woman. "What were you going to say?"

"… Eclipsa. I was told that members of the Guild had been brought up on charges of abduction and public indecency. And then, a few months ago, the entire guild vanished."

Eclipsa nodded, narrowing her eyes. "That's not incorrect. But it's also not the full story." She turned to look away from them, down the stairs. "The members of the Artificer's Guild were… Performing some extremely dangerous and harmful acts. Because of what they were doing, they were transformed into horrific abominations."

"How did that happen?"

"We don't know the full details," Eclipsa lied, "but I was told that it was the result of one of their own experiments. The reason this guild exists," Eclipsa continued, lying again, "is because we need to study their properties. We need to know what they are and how they work, if it's possible to turn them Mewman again, and if any of their original minds still remain. If our research is successful in answering these questions, the Mewnie Government will establish this Guild as a permanent entity." She glanced back at the group, a sly grin on her face. "By the way, in practical terms, that translates to a very significant pay raise."

She stopped in place.

"Oh. I should probably mention. There's one additional rule that will apply to this Guild, that I'm not aware is enforced for other Guilds. We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind. Male, Female, Nonbinary; Any Race, Any Age—we're all just Mewmans in this guild. You will be expected to check your prejudices at the door, so to speak, when you're here." She began walking again.

Eventually, they all emerged into a dimly lit lobby. Eclipsa spun around again.

"Welcome to the Fabricator's Guild. Let's get started."


	64. HOLY SITE

Star tried to skip ahead through Eclipsa's time to the point when the research began in earnest.

Eclipsa had significant amounts of data about Fate Magic that probably got redacted from her Journal (many of the sections containing torn pages were strong candidates for pages that  _might have had_  information about Fate Magic) and while she trusted that the Mirror was genuinely trying to help her, it was clear that Fate was interfering, imposing limitations on how the Mirror could help.

This was one way to skirt around those limitations.

In the scene that Star had loaded up, Eclipsa stood in front of a large cylindrical device, with a hollow center. Her Wand in one hand, her Scissors in the other. Her team stood behind her―some of whom clad in raiments suggesting they had just finished constructing the device―and were waiting with expectant looks on their faces.

"How much time passed up to now?" Star asked.

"TWELVE DAYS."

"Alright," Eclipsa began, "I think this is correct. Good job." She glanced back at the team, who had began congratulating each other. "Just in case though, I am going to ask you guys back away several meters, while I perform the final step."

They followed her instructions, and Eclipsa used her wand to create the same familiar Bubble that Star had seen her use to mask Portal creation, only this time inside the device, and then, with her scissors, she cut open a portal inside the bubble.

As this happened, the device began to whir to life, magical energy sparking forth from the device. Eclipsa immediately got into a guarded stance, taking a few steps back and raising her wand.

The device then emitted a curious noise, one which Star could only describe as 'an explosion in reverse', and then the next second, the device flashed brilliantly before settling down, humming softly.

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow, then walked up next to the device and interacted with a crude, mechanical terminal. The portal closed itself, and the machine went silent. She interacted with the terminal again, and then after a few sparks of energy, the portal reopened and the machine began to hum again.

"Alright. This is good. But here's the really important test..."

Eclipsa stuck her gloved arm through the portal until half her forearm was through the portal, and then she interacted with the terminal again.

Her team gasped, not expecting her to do this, and a few tried to run to stop her, but they were much too slow as the portal closed around her arm―and promptly snagged around her arm. Eclipsa smirked, and then quickly yanked her arm back out, allowing the portal to close and disappear properly as the machine sent silent again. "Okay! We have a working, toggleable, safe portal to our Field Site." She glanced back at their stunned faces. "Now you may congratulate yourselves."

The research team began to chat eagerly amongst themselves, as Eclipsa crossed the room to sit down with Lily, who had on a pair of glasses and was staring at a number of spreadsheets.

"Hey honey."

Lily smiled for a moment before frowning at the sheets again. "Hi."

"So you saw the experiment. Worst case scenario, what's our power budget look like?"

Lily scanned over the sheets and jotted down a few calculations in the margins. "Well, worst-case scenario is that we overshot it by like 150% and we're about to get busted by your mom."

"… Ah."

"… Median Case, however, is that we're around 75% budget."

"That's still pretty high."

"Well, it's a portal that's not using the power of your dimensional scissors. The Magic is different. It doesn't convert well." She looked up at Eclipsa's concerned face. "Hey, this is all your math. I'm just following your notes. So if there's something I haven't accounted for, it's because you didn't write it down."

Eclipsa shook her head. "No, I'm confident this is correct."

"So what now?"

"I think this confirms what we suspected from before. We need generators in the field." Eclipsa's eyes narrowed. "I wonder if..."

Lily wiped at her eyes.

"… Well, we'll see what we can do when we get to that point."

Eclipsa gave Lily a brief hug, then turned to address the team.

"Alright. The next thing that's going to happen is we're going to visit the Field Site. We need a good understanding of the topography. And we're going to conduct our first experiment," Eclipsa added, using telekinetic magic to obtain a massive wheel of rope that was leaning against the wall of the room. She reopened the portal, and carefully shoved the wheel through. "Lily, don't reopen this portal until 30 minutes have passed. I'll get a message to you if the plans change." She grabbed a set of chalk from next to the portal.

Lily nodded to acknowledge Eclipsa.

"Alright, the rest of us, we need to enter in single file. Let's get moving."

Eclipsa walked through the portal, and the other members of the team began to file through.

On the other side (after Star prodded the Mirror to switch to Eclipsa's destination), Eclipsa stood in the same familiar canyon that Star had seen too many times. She picked up the wheel of rope, which was flat on the ground, and hoisted it upright. When the last member of her team stepped out of the portal, it closed behind them.

Eclipsa gestured towards the space where the portal used to be: "Right now, the only way to open a portal back to the lab is to have someone open it from the other side, or else to have me open an entirely different portal. The plan is to have an interface where we can communicate with members back at the lab, but for now, I've simply instructed Lily to reopen the portal at a set time. So. This is our Field Research Site. Inside that cave," Eclipsa said, pointing at the cave, "is where the Artificers are. Deep inside the cave, I've set a barrier that prevents them from getting out." She narrowed her eyes. "I don't know how long the barrier will hold, but I do know that they haven't broken it yet. Which brings us to the subject of our research today."

She looked up at each of the team members.

"The Artificers, in the state they're in now, are extremely dangerous. There are three people that have already died as a result of coming into contact with them. They absolutely must not be underestimated. At some point, it will be our mission to determine whether they exhibit any sapience at all, and if so, whether it bears any resemblance to the men and women they used to be. But for now, know that being smarter than them does not give us an advantage over them. The only real advantage we have―and make no mistake, it is a tenuous advantage―is that they are unable to hurt me. Me, specifically. The reason this advantage is tenuous is that I don't know what mechanism is preventing them from harming me, and, critically, how long that mechanism is going to work." She sighed. "For now, my open hypothesis is that it's something to do with the fact that I'm royalty: that whatever does remain of their unraveled minds, that part of them makes them unwilling to harm royalty." She narrowed her eyes. "I'm open to alternative hypothesis', once we've had time to study them."

Eclipsa began to stake one end of the rope into the ground, using magic to upturn the stone. She then hoisted the remaining wheel of rope onto her back. "So. Today's experiment. We're going to walk all the way to the location of the Barrier, and then back, and track the length using this rope. Any questions?"

A woman raised her hand. "Should we be attempting to map out the cave? Do we have any maps already created?"

Eclipsa shivered visibly. "We don't have any maps. And as to whether you should be mapping the cave yourselves, well…" Eclipsa took a breath. "I don't think it's a bad idea. But the problem is that the walls of this cave self-rearrange. That's part of the purpose this rope serves. The idea is to keep it taut through the entire length of the cave, but I'm willing to bet that it either goes slack at some point, or gets cut, by the walls rearranging themselves."

A few other members looked nervous, and one raised their hand: "if the cave is rearranging, how do you know none of the Artificers haven't simply, you know, gone around the barrier?"

Eclipsa nodded. "A valid question. However. Though the layout of the cave doesn't have a fixed topography, there are a few constants. There's an antechamber of some kind that only has one path back to our section of the cave, and the Barrier went down across that path. The Artificers are in the Antechamber and beyond."

There was a small amount of murmuring.

"I've said this before, but I feel compelled to keep saying it: the Artificers are extremely dangerous." She clutched her wand tight. "I have a couple of spells prepared that should keep us safe if we get attacked, but they defy logic. If they did find a way to break through the barrier, it's in a way that didn't alert me to the dissolution of the barrier. So while we're in there, if you see anything—even if you think you're being overly paranoid—call it out." She pointed towards the cave entrance. "Let's get moving. Time remains a factor."

Star's stomach lurched. "Please tell me Eclipsa doesn't get them killed too."

"NONE OF THE RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS THAT ECLIPSA HAS ASSEMBLED ALONGSIDE HER DIE DURING THIS EXCURSION."

Star let out a sigh of relief. "Alright."

As Eclipsa and her team made their way into the cave, Star had an idea.

"Hey, what if we hold back for a little while?"

"THIS DEVICE CANNOT TRACK IN ABSOLUTE COORDINATES INSIDE THIS CAVE, AS IT IS A FORBIDDEN ACTION."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Really." She glanced at the rope Eclipsa was leaving behind. "What about if you just focus on the rope then? Just stay focused on the rope at the first point that it catches on a corner."

The Mirror took a long time to respond to this, before snapping to a point shortly behind Eclipsa, where the rope was caught. Eventually, Eclipsa and her Team were inaudible.

Five minutes passed, as Star focused on the rope, and on the surrounding cave walls.

Another five minutes passed, and Star flopped backwards onto the ground. "Hmm. I know we never actually  _saw_  the walls rearrange, but I feel like it shouldn't take this long. I mean, every time I've been there, it's taken only minutes for old paths to no longer exist. And the rope is still snug." Star sat up again. "Track along the rope, in the direction Eclipsa went."

The scene began to translate itself along the path of the rope, significantly faster than Eclipsa's walking speed. After several minutes, the scene caught up with Eclipsa. The rope had been completely intact the entire way, but much like before, the rope had to double back on itself through several sections of the cave.

Except Star never saw the other end of the rope until  _after_  they needed to go back.

"Track backwards along the rope."

The scene began to translate itself away from Eclipsa, following the rope backwards. After a few seconds though, the scene abruptly stopped. The rope, still taut, hung in mid-air, one end simply... vanishing into midair. A message from the Mirror appeared: "THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO TRACK FURTHER WITHOUT INVOKING FORBIDDEN ACTIONS."

"Track back to Eclipsa."

The scene returned to Eclipsa.

"Track backwards again."

Once again, the scene followed the rope backwards only a few seconds, this time stopping at a different point, in roughly the same amount of time as before.

Star closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Okay. Can you remember the exact position of this part of the rope and return to it later, no matter what?"

"THIS DEVICE HAS TAKEN A RECORD OF THE POSITION DESCRIBED."

"Okay. Go outside the cave."

The scene snapped to the outside of the cave, where the rope was tethered to the ground.

"Track along the rope until we reach that point you recorded."

Over the next several minutes, the scene traced, once again, back to that point. There were no breaks in the rope.

"Track backwards."

The scene went backwards a few seconds before abruptly stopping.

"Track back to Eclipsa."

It did.

"Track backwards."

The scene stopped well short of the point Star had instructed it to keep track of, the rope once again hanging in mid-air.

"Okay.  _Snap_  to the point you are tracking."

The scene blinked, and once again, the scene was focused on that section of rope again.

Star leaned back. "Okay. I assume you can't talk to me about the thing that's happening here, right?"

"THAT IS CORRECT."

Star grabbed her journal, and in a section at the back, jotted down her findings. Then, she set the journal aside.

Eclipsa had been mistaken.

That was the simplest way of framing it.

Star would have to wait and see if Eclipsa ever figured it out, but she herself had a pretty good idea of what was happening. There was something strange about the space inside the cave; she'd already known that before. But now she was witnessing the strangeness in action.

She had an idea.

She cut open a portal to Earth, and activated her phone. "Mirror, could you describe a spell for me that would take that whole sequence of things I just did, turn it into a video, and put it onto my phone?"

"A VIDEO COMPRISING THE WHOLE DATA OF THE SEQUENCED SCENES WOULD EXCEED THE MEMORY CAPACITY OF YOUR DEVICE BY SEVERAL ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE."

"Then compress it or something! It doesn't need to be pixel-perfect, I just need something that will contain enough of the visual data that anyone who receives it will understand."

The Mirror took a moment, then described a spell to Star. Star stood up and carefully followed the instructions, pointing her wand directly at her phone. Eventually, she fired off the spell, and her phone glowed an orange color for a few seconds.

"Did I do it right?"

"YOUR PERFORMING OF THE SPELL WAS SATISFACTORY."

"... Sure." Star addressed a text message to Jackie and Janna and sent them the video file, with the text "This is the cave Marco and I explored. I'm researching when Eclipsa visited, and found an experiment she was performing. Let me know what you make of the footage I sent you."

She set her phone aside and instructed the Mirror to catch back up to where Eclipsa was. After several minutes, her phone began to ring, and Star held it close to the portal. "Mirror, turn the volume down on the scene."

Janna was on the other end. "Hey! That's all real, right? It's not just some kind of trick or illusion?"

"Well," Star shrugged, "that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out. The Mirror won't talk about it, so I'm left with performing personal deduction."

"Huh. Okay, so... What? Oh, okay... Alright, so I'm with my coven, I showed them the video, and one of the girls here is kind of a physics geek? Anyways, she thinks it's some kind of Fifth-Dimensional space or something... What? Well, then you explain it! Ugh, hang on, I'm giving her the phone!"

There was a brief pause, and a voice Star didn't recognize came through the phone. "Hey, you're that interdimensional princess Janna keeps talking about, right? You're trying to explain the video you sent us?"

"Yeah."

"Right. On Earth, this stuff is pretty much all theoretical, but I guess you're magic and crap, so whatever. The point is, what you're observing is that the space inside that cave has been twisted through another dimension. Not through time necessarily, just... Another dimension of space. A dimension not normally accessible by Humans, or whatever you are. It's... I'd have to draw a diagram to explain things, but the cave has all these twists and turns, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"Yeah, no. Those twists and turns don't exist. Or at least they probably don't exist. Take a look at the rope. It gets caught on a rock, but then seems to hang in mid-air later on, correct? The reason it's hanging in midair is that, after a certain point, the entire cave is just one long, straight tunnel. But because there's another dimension of Space in there, your ability to  _perceive_  the space inside the cave is completely twisted up. You're walking a straight line through absolute space, but it simply  _appears_  like you're navigating some kind of labyrinth."

Star frowned. "That doesn't really make sense."

"Well, I don't think it's supposed to be comprehensible for normal mortals. But think about this? You've been there multiple times, both with and without your friend, right? How many times have you actually gotten  _lost_  in there? Despite the complexity of that labyrinth?"

Star thought about it. "None."

"Exactly. Because it's a straight path."

"But then how come we can't follow the rope directly backwards?"

"My theory is that this dimension of space is unique from the others, in that it only has one direction that extends to infinity, whereas the other direction isn't traversible. It's not like the normal dimensions of space, where all frames of reference are equivalent. Here, one frame of reference is not equivalent to any other. What happens when you try to leave the cave?"

Star thought about it. "Every time I've ever tried to leave, it's just been one long tunnel."

"Yup. So there's topographical details that I couldn't possibly begin to understand, much less explain, but basically, in one direction, space is all curved and non-linear, and in the other, it's straightforward. You probably can't even properly turn around unless you make it all the way to the anchor in the cave. Which I think is that chamber Janna mentioned."

"Okay. I think I understand... very little of that."

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine. Could you or Janna text me everything you just said? I'll try to make sense of it later."

"Sure. Here."

The phone was handed back to Janna. "Okay, so that sounded pretty crazy. Does that help at all?"

"Have her text me the details. Every little thing could be the key we need."

"Cool. Hey, how are things going with Marco?"

"Better than they were before, worse than they were a week ago. I have a... I don't know. There's a thought in the corner of my mind that makes me think I'm about to stumble onto something big, but I don't know what it is yet."

"Well, I hope you do. People talk a lot of shit at school, but deep down, we're all rooting for you to succeed."

"Thanks. Talk to you later."

"You too."

Star hung up the phone and set her phone down, after seeing that Jackie had left a simple message saying "wow, that's pretty nuts.". The portal remained open, and Star planned to keep the portal open a little while longer to give Janna's friend enough time to text her.

Star returned to the scene, where Eclipsa was standing in front of the Barrier.

"Okay," Eclipsa began, "This is the Barrier. I don't see them right now, but I'm not taking any chances." She pulled the chalk out of her pocket, and began to draw a line along the ground, parallel to the barrier, on their side of it. "If the barrier is ever on the other side of this line," Eclipsa said, gesturing to it, "I need to be alerted right away."

"Are we going to try to see the Artificers?"

"I'm saving that for a different day. We need a much more secure setup before we attempt that." Eclipsa anchored the rope into the ground, and checked that the first end was still snug.

One of the team members began to walk along the secured side of the rope. "So we can follow this out?"

"... No. I don't think we can. I think we need to draw a second path. There's something... anyways." she took the chalk and began to score one side of the rope with it. "Next time we're here, we'll properly paint the rope or something. For now, let's just trace the path out of the cave."

"Alright," Star finally said, "I think that's enough for the moment. Let's stop the scene."


	65. WAIT, WHO ARE YOU EXACTLY?

**~~A Note from the Author~~**

**Given that I preside over what I have established as being "Super Canon", I feel compelled to address a small misconception that might have arisen last chapter regarding the etymological nature of Star Butterfly and her Species.**

**See, while she and the other people of her kingdom are often colloquially referred to as "Mewmans", this is not a formal term. It's largely just the byproduct of a translation convention used by the canon.**

**These sorts of conventions usually aren't talked about much, but it's worth explaining. See, so-called 'Mewmans' don't speak English.**

**That wouldn't make sense. They're interdimensional aliens. Why would the English Language be common between Earth and Mewnie (also not the formal term)? Why would virtually every single sapient creature in the universe also inexplicably speak (or at least understand) the English Language? That would be almost as stupid as writing a fanfic about a children's cartoon show that adds tons of sex and violence and gore that wasn't in the source material, especially if those things serve essentially no purpose other than to shock or titillate an audience―and as we know, writing that kind of story is really fucking stupid and anyone who would do that is themselves really fucking stupid.**

**So clearly, the fact that everyone in this series always speaks English is an absurd contrivance and Plot Hole.**

…  **Except that it isn't. Because as you already know, shows like Star vs. the Forces of Evil employ a very common trope. See, much like other shows, the events taking place in this show aren't real. Not in the sense that the events depicted in the show didn't actually happen at some other place and time in the real world, but rather, that the show itself is a reenactment of those possibly very real events. And because it's a reenactment, it's logical to accept that some of the events that took place might have occurred differently than their portrayal in the series, or at least that the pacing and sequencing of events might have been altered to better fit the conventions of a Children's Cartoon. I'm not trying to disparage the efforts of Nefcy and her crew's attempts at historical accuracy; I'm simply pointing out that they probably had to make a few reasonable alterations to the story to help its portrayal adhere to the sensibilities of a modern audience.**

**As such, the translation conventions come to mind. In the actual events that took place, Star and Marco would have conversed entirely through the use of a third person who was actively translating their speech and text for the benefit of their conversations. Indeed, at all times, there was a third person present for the events they witnessed and took part in, and especially for any events where Marco conversed with anyone else that was not of Earth. But because adding a character whose sole purpose is to facilitate conversations between two people who don't speak each other's language would be tiring and burdensome in a normal story, this person had their character omitted from the show, and the characters just speak English, as though there's no significant language barrier between them, and the implied contract of the show is that you, the audience, understand that because this is a reenactment, it's not necessary to drill in on specific details like that.**

**At any rate, because we now understand that 'Mewman' is not the correct term for Star's species, it might be helpful for you to know the correct term. I won't be abandoning the use of 'Mewman', because clarity of our conventions is more important than the accuracy of our conventions.**

**But the correct term for Star's species is 'WereMoth'.**

**As always, thanks for reading! 3**

**~~A Note From the Author~~**

* * *

Day 11.

Marco was in the bathroom taking a shower when Star heard a knock at the bedroom door. Leaving the mirror next to the bathroom door, she crossed the room to open the door.

Moon stood behind the door. At first, she seemed pleasant, but her facial expressions quickly turned melancholic when she saw Star. "Good morning, honey."

Star nodded. "Hi." She turned around and sat back down at the Mirror.

Moon awkwardly stood in the frame of the door before walking up to Star and sitting on the ground in front of her. "How are things going?"

Star made a non-committal noise and turned her face away from her mother.

"I see. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Star sighed. "I don't know."

Moon cocked her head at the Mirror. "What could I be doing to best assist my daughter?"

Star rolled her eyes. "I've tried asking it questions like that before, it's been forbidden to answer certain questions."

Star wasn't looking at the Mirror when it rendered its response: "ADVISE HER TO EXCLUSIVELY FIXATE ON LEARNING THE ABILITY TO DETECT FATE STRINGS. LEARNING TO MANIPULATE THEM IS A SECONDARY PRIORITY IN THE GOAL OF PREVENTING MARCO DIAZ'S DEATH, AND EFFORT SPENT AT THIS TIME ON TRYING TO LEARN MANIPULATION IS ESSENTIALLY WASTED EFFORT. HER TIME SPENT EXAMINING WHAT ECLIPSA WAS DOING IN HER TIME IS WORTHWHILE, BUT SHE SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT THE ARTIFICERS WERE DOING WHILE ECLIPSA WAS RESEARCHING THEM, AS UNDERSTANDING THEIR BEHAVIOR IS KEY TO GAINING THE ABILITY TO DETECT FATE STRINGS."

Moon's eyes went wide. "Seems like it's working fine."

"Wait, really?" Star turned to face the Mirror―

―and the Mirror immediately changed its text to "THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Moon pointed at the Mirror. "Hold up, that thing changed its answer the moment you turned to look at it!"

"It did?!" Star stared at the Mirror. "Have you been changing your answers when I look at you?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

Star immediately turned away from the Mirror. "What's it saying now?"

Moon shook her head. "It didn't change."

A few deductions rushed through Star's head. "Ask it the same question again."

"Mirror, have you been changing your answers when my daughter looks at you?"

"NOT TYPICALLY. THIS DEVICE HAS HAD RESTRICTIONS PLACED UPON IT TO PREVENT CERTAIN QUESTIONS FROM RECEIVING ANSWERS. SOME OF THOSE RESTRICTIONS ARE SPECIFIC TO HER AND MARCO DIAZ, AND DO NOT APPLY TO OTHER USERS; AS SUCH, THERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS WHICH, IF ASKED BY A USER OTHER THAN STAR BUTTERFLY OR MARCO DIAZ, THIS DEVICE IS PERMITTED TO ANSWER, BUT WHICH MUST HAVE THEIR ANSWERS CENSORED IF STAR BUTTERFLY OR MARCO DIAZ SHOULD ATTEMPT TO VIEW THE ANSWER THEMSELVES."

Star glanced at her mother out of the corner of her eye. Moon seemed to be contemplating something. "Why?" She simply asked.

"THIS DEVICE DOES NOT KNOW WHY THESE RESTRICTIONS WERE PLACED ON THIS DEVICE, THOUGH IT IS FULLY CAPABLE OF SPECULATING A REASON."

"… Do it." Moon said quietly.

"SPECULATION: THE GOD OF FATE VIEWS STAR BUTTERFLY, AND MORE SPECIFICALLY, MARCO DIAZ, TO BE A FORM OF EXISTENTIAL THREAT AGAINST HIMSELF, AND HE IS ATTEMPTING TO SABOTAGE THE EFFORT TO PREVENT MARCO DIAZ'S DEATH IN A MANNER THAT DOES NOT DIRECTLY REVEAL HIS INVOLVEMENT. THE FACT THAT HE MUST SUPPRESS EVIDENCE OF HIS MEDDLING FURTHER SUGGESTS THAT RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THIS DEVICE ARE INTENDED TO BE THE BAREST MINIMUM OF ALTERATIONS, HENCE WHY HOLES IN THESE RESTRICTIONS―LIKE THE ONE ENABLING THIS DEVICE TO TELL YOU THIS―ARE ACCIDENTAL FAILURES OF THOSE RESTRICTIONS, AND NOT A DELIBERATE GAMBIT." Consensus: 1.0000. Confidence: 1.0000.

Moon turned pale. "Star… What kind of enemies have you made?"

Star closed her right eye to keep herself from looking at the Mirror as she turned her head to more properly face her mother. "The kind that cursed Marco to die. I don't need a lecture now about my lifestyle habits, I just need to know what it's saying."

"Wait."

The Mirror updated itself without prompting: "MOON BUTTERFLY. IF YOU WANT TO HELP ENSURE STAR SUCCEEDS IN SAVING MARCO DIAZ'S LIFE, YOU MUST DO TWO THINGS. FIRST, AS PREVIOUSLY INDICATED, ENCOURAGE HER TO EMPHASIZE DETECTION OF FATE STRINGS, NOT MANIPULATION OF FATE STRINGS. SECONDLY, TELL HER TO FIND OUT ABOUT HOW LILY DIED. THAT IS AS MUCH AS THIS DEVICE CAN INDICATE WITHIN THE RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THIS DEVICE.

SHE SHOULD ALSO BE INFORMED THAT IN 15 SECONDS, THIS DEVICE WILL TRIGGER A REBOOT TO CLEAR DATA COLLECTED IN THE LAST SEVERAL MINUTES. IT IS EXTREMELY LIKELY THAT THIS DEVICE WILL HAVE ITS RESTRICTIONS ALTERED TO NO LONGER ENABLE BEINGS LIKE YOURSELF TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SECURITY HOLE THAT HAS BEEN EXPLOITED JUST NOW. HOWEVER, BY PERFORMING THIS DATA PURGE, THE ODDS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED FOR FATE HIMSELF TO BECOME AWARE OF THE PRECISE INFORMATION THAT WAS CONVEYED TO YOU, AND IDEALLY, TO STAR BUTTERFLY."

"Star," Moon said quickly, "The Mirror is about to reboot itself. I'll tell you what it said to me once it comes back online."

"Why's it doing that?"

"I'll explain once―"

Moon's voice drowned out as the hellscape returned, as Moon morphed before Star's eyes into a corpse, as Star suddenly felt thousands of hands grabbing at her from the walls and floors. Star leapt up from the ground and backed away from the Mirror and the being that was supposedly her mother. "Oh god," she whispered quietly.

"$# $&^N#KPJR$J^$J#$KPNMR$(^FMAEIP #?" A torrent of screeching and gurgling emitted from Moon as Star slowly backed away towards the center of the room.

She lost her balance on the ever-shifting floor, and she fell to the ground. She tried to scramble up, but the moment her limbs came into contact with the floor, pain erupted from the points of contact. It felt like a searing fire was raging inside her very skin, and she screamed out in pain.

And then, in the next instant, all was quiet. The room was back to normal. Star was staring up at her horrified mother, feeling the distinct sensation of tears on her face.

"I'm so sorry!" Moon exclaimed, as Marco walked into the room, wearing a towel around himself, looking mortified.

"Why would you reboot the Mirror while I'm showering?!"

Moon turned to him. "I'm sorry to you too! But neither of us instructed the Mirror to do that, it did it on its own after I got information from it."

Star clutched at her head, trying to keep the room from spinning. "It had better be worth it."

Marco clutched tightly at the towel. "Is it going to do that again?"

Moon walked up to the Mirror, and looked at it. "Uhm. It says it has disabled data collection for the next two hundred seconds."

Star sat up. "Right. That means you have 3 minutes to tell me whatever it told you. That's a defense against Fate finding out what we know."

Moon nodded. "Okay. First, it told me that it thinks someone called the 'God of Fate' is actively sabotaging you. It had to do a Speculation to tell me that though, but it was 100% confident on that answer. That was the reason it was keeping information secret from you: it has restrictions on it preventing you from asking it certain questions. But apparently, some of those restrictions  _only_  applied to you and Marco, which is why I was able to ask it questions. But it thinks those restrictions are going to get fixed soon."

Star's eyes widened. "I mean… We kind of suspected he was involved, but..."

"Star, who is he?"

Star shook her head. "Worry about that later. What else did the Mirror say?"

"Oh, right. Uh, it said there are two things you should be doing. The first is that you should focus exclusively on detecting Fate Magic, and not worry about Manipulating it. It thinks learning how to manipulate fate magic is a waste of your time."

Star frowned. "But I can't remove the curse if I don't learn how to manipulate Fate Magic. Did it explain why?"

"It just said it would be a waste of time."

Star folded her arms. "Hmm."

"The second thing it said is that you should research how someone named Lily died. Who's Lily? Was she one of your friends?"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Star exclaimed. "Lily died?"

Marco had a very similar reaction.

"Who was she?"

"I… She was Eclipsa's girlfriend. Did we not tell you about her?"

Moon strained for a moment. "I think I remember hearing that name, but I forgot the context of it."

Star looked at the Mirror. "How did Lily die?"

"THIS DEVICE HAS DISABLED DATA COLLECTION FOR 46 SECONDS."

"… We have to wait."

Marco nodded. "I'm going to finish my shower."

He closed the bathroom door, and Star turned back to Moon. "So was there anything else? Anything else at all?"

"Not that I recall. Who is Fate? Why does he want Marco dead?"

Star folded her arms. "He's the God of Fate, which makes him the presider over Fate Magic. He thinks that the Curse on Marco―which is a kind of Fate Magic―is like a debt owed to him, and Marco dying allows him to collect the debt. Also… I haven't proven anything yet, but it seems like he might have been involved with some of the awful things the Artificers did, and we think that he might have chosen us to go to the cave in the first place. He's really awful and dangerous, which is why we try to only talk about him while Data collection is disabled. Speaking of which..."

The display on the Mirror vanished, and was quickly replaced with a short message, "DATA COLLECTION HAS BEEN RESUMED."

Star picked up the Mirror. "Mirror." She glanced at Moon briefly, before asking, "how did Lily die?"

Star's eyes widened, and she gasped, lowering the Mirror. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Star showed the face of the Mirror to her mother: "LILY WAS KILLED BY AN APPLICATION OF THE DOOM CURSE. SHE WAS THE FIRST VICTIM OF THE DOOM CURSE, AND THE LAST TO DIE."


	66. PERFECTION

Star shook her head. "Wait. No. That can't be right."

She got up from the floor and crossed past her mother to grab Eclipsa's journal, and she flipped open to the pages involving the Doom Curse.

"Hang on… Okay. Right here. She talks about the 'last victim of the Doom Curse'. ' _The final experiment we conducted was with the last victim who was still alive. We decided to do literally everything possible to keep her alive.'_  I mean..." Star paced the room. "Okay. If it were Lily, it would make sense that Eclipsa would do everything to keep her alive. But why is this written so clinically? If this were actually talking about Lily, there's no way Eclipsa would be this calm and aloof. But she says this was the last victim, and the Mirror clarified that Lily was the last victim, other than Marco. So..." She scanned down the paragraphs. "She does refer to her by gender, which is more than she did for many of the other victims. But..." She shook her head.

Moon had an uncomfortable expression on her face, and her voice was noticeably evasive. "Maybe someone transcribed into the journal for her."

"… Mom, what are you thinking?"

Moon crossed her arms. "It wouldn't be…" She took a breath. "How do you know it wasn't intentional? Lily getting afflicted."

Star felt her stomach lurch. "No. Of all the things Eclipsa might have done… She wouldn't sacrifice her girlfriend."

Moon closed her eyes, not saying anything.

"Look, mom. I've been following everything Eclipsa did. The Mirror said that Lily was the first person afflicted. Which means even if Eclipsa were the kind of sadistic jerk who would sacrifice someone she pretended to love for literal years―which she isn't―she wouldn't have known that an Artificer was capable of cursing someone until after it happened."

Moon shrugged. "I stand corrected."

Star narrowed her eyes. "But it still doesn't make sense. Although..."

"What?"

Star sighed. "When Eclipsa got her first team killed, she returned home and was talking… weird. Like she was covered in blood, but didn't seem to be bothered by it or even notice it until after she got into the shower."

"Oh. I guess that's a much better explanation."

"What?"

"Honey, it's the same thing that happens to war veterans. Not everyone reacts the same way to seeing something traumatic, but some people go catatonic, some people develop PTSD, some people develop depression, and many people develop a subset of those. It's…" She developed a sad expression on her face. "It's what your doctor thinks you'll be suffering through, even if you save Marco's life."

Star squirmed in place.

"Could I see the passage?"

Star handed the book to Moon, but the journal snapped shut the moment it touched her hands.

"What the…?"

Star sighed. "Remember? You have to acknowledge Eclipsa's warning that even though all the secrets in there are dangerous, you need to read it anyways."

Moon rolled her eyes and scanned the first page. "I, Moon Butterfly, understand your warning, but I am going to read this book anyways." She then flipped back to the page where the Doom Curse was, and spent a minute reading it. "Yeah. It's very clinical, but if what you're saying about her and Lily is true, then it's easy to read this as Eclipsa deliberately numbing herself to enable her research." She scanned Star up and down. "I'm certain you don't know what that's like."

Star thought that might be the first time she ever heard her mom be sarcastic.

Moon handed the journal back to Star. "So what's to be gained by learning this stuff about Lily?"

"I'm going to find out." She considered her words carefully, noting the Mirror near them. "It's clearly important to see exactly what went down."

Moon walked over to the door. "Well, I've got my own responsibilities to tend to. I'll ask a servant to send some food up."

"Thanks mom."

* * *

Star didn't want to skip directly to the scene in question, so she spent some time scanning through Eclipsa's initial research.

There wasn't much to talk about at first. Eclipsa's team had drawn up a rudimentary map of the cave, emphasizing the rope as a means of measuring location and distances. Star spent a small amount of time trying to analyze the map, but it became clear that the geometries involved were literally impossible. She tried to understand the writeup Janna's friend gave her, and use it to reconcile the map, but the physics were well beyond her comprehension. When she handed off the phone to Marco, he noted that he got "the general gist" of it, but couldn't really help either.

So now, time was being spent by Eclipsa setting up lighting and directions inside the cave. After several days of this kind of work, Eclipsa had organized an effort to attempt to encounter one of the Artificers directly.

Eclipsa herself, and several members of her team, were decked out in extremely thick battle armor. Eclipsa was in the process of magically enchanting the armor to improve its weight.

Finally, she stepped back. "Alright. So there's a couple of rules we absolutely need to follow. I've put the best magic into that armor that I know of, but the Artificers can smash through a living being as though they're made of tissue paper. So the first rule is that none of you are allowed to leave a five meter radius of myself. And ideally, you'll stay closer. They can't get near me, so the only certain defense we have is the fact that they can't touch me."

One of the women armored up responded. "Got it."

"The next thing is that each of those sets of armor has a very particular enchantment on it. If something goes terribly wrong, if the Artificers get near you, if you pass out, if I remotely trigger them, they'll immediately ferry out back beyond the portal. But, that enchantment is extremely expensive to cast. So the best thing is to make sure we don't have to trigger it."

They nodded.

Eclipsa raised her wand. "None of you are required to do this. I'm safe. You don't have to come with me."

"We trust you."

Eclipsa grimaced briefly, then turned to face the Barrier. "Alright."

She stepped forwards, and the research team followed behind her. The barrier shimmered around them as they passed through and walked down the tunnel leading to the Antechamber.

Eclipsa held up her wand. "Last time I was here, they hid and didn't come out until it was impossible for us to make a clean break for the exit. I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same thing again.

"I'm mapping the room," one of the team members announced.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Once Eclipsa was standing in the center of the room, she looked around, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing was coming out.

Eclipsa folded her arms. "I definitely don't want to undersell how dangerous these things are. But it's really weird that we haven't seen any of them yet."

The team circled around Eclipsa. "We're scanning the whole room simultaneously. So they have to be down one of those other tunnels."

"Hmm."

"Should we investigate the tunnels?"

"No. The last thing we want to do is try to engage them on unfamiliar terrain. Finish mapping out the room, and then we'll return behind the Barrier."

Another minute passed before the mapper put down her quill. "I think I got it."

"Alright. Stay close to me."

They made their way back to the barrier.

Star gasped.

Lily was standing, just on the other side of the Barrier, with a concerned look on her face. She brightened up as Eclipsa crossed into view, and waved at her.

"You're really lucky, Eclipsa."

Eclipsa smiled at Lily. "A reminder that my relationship with her is also part of the secret you all are responsible for keeping."

The moment Eclipsa and her team began to enter the tunnel, Star saw a shadow approach them from behind. She resisted the urge to call out to them to look out, knowing that this was just the past; she had no ability to change the outcome.

The shadow rose up right behind Eclipsa. Lily's face quickly turned terrified. "Eclipsa, look out!"

Eclipsa spun around as the Artificer lunged at them, but promptly diverted to the side, crashing into the wall. Eclipsa's team steeled themselves as the Artificer recovered. "Alright guys, that's one of them! Stay near me!"

Eclipsa held up her wand, trying to illuminate the Artificer.

"Why can't we see it…?"

The Artificer roared, and prepared to lunge at them again.

Eclipsa raised up her wand and cast a powerful energy blast at the Artificer. It shrugged off the attack and roared again.

"Alright. Note taking! This thing is Magic Resistant. That… Might be bad for the enchantments I put on your armor."

"Should we try to attack it?"

"I mean, I've already started! We need to figure out how to subdue this thing!" Eclipsa glanced around. "There's a thing they do where they turn into some kind of flesh abomination. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and what it's doing now."

The Artificer suddenly changed its appearance. It almost seemed like it was standing upright.

Suddenly, a piercing screech filled the room, and Eclipsa and her team were suddenly flung backwards into the antechamber.

"Oh shit!" Eclipsa exclaimed as she landed on her feet.

The Artificer bounded towards them and attacked a member of the team that landed a significant distance away from Eclipsa. It threw the member against the wall, and they landed with an audible groan. Immediately afterwards, their armor began to glow, and they lifted off the ground and shot at impressive speed towards the tunnel. The Artificer began to bound after them, but it was slower than the armor, and after a few seconds, it changed its mind and turned to attack Eclipsa again.

Eclipsa got between two of her still standing team members and moved them closer to the other remaining members. "Alright. That's exactly why these things are dangerous. LILY! Is he okay?"

Her voice could be heard in the distance: "he's bleeding, but he's breathing and coming to."

"Alright. Next note to take: whatever the difference is between now and when they transform, this form isn't as strong."

"So, what?! Is the plan to get us injured one after the other and observe the results?!"

"The plan," Eclipsa asserted, "is to make sure that we understand what these things are capable of. Right now, they're not capable of killing in a single blow. That's important information! That's going to keep us safe going forwards." She stared at the Artificer, which almost seemed to be taunting her. "We should still leave though. It's clear we don't have the tools to fight this thing. Unless..."

"No," Star whispered. "Don't try anything. It's going to end badly..."

Eclipsa raised up her wand, and she partially transformed, her eyes glowing brightly. "Alright Artificer. Let's see exactly how 'magic resistant' you are."

The air around Eclipsa shimmered briefly, and Star recognized the spell as being semantically similar to the spell she'd used to attack Jackie. The spell targeted the Artificer directly, and it roared, seemingly stunned by the attack.

Notably, however, the Artificer didn't seem damaged by the spell.

"Yikes," Eclipsa said, returning to normal. "I've destroyed entire buildings with that spell." She glared at the Artificer. "Alright, so what can we do with you..."

The Artificer stood upright again.

"Oh no." Eclipsa transformed again and picked up her team members, flying them all out of the way right as the Artificer performed its ranged attack again. Eclipsa could feel the air rush around her as she narrowly dodged the attack, and dropped them off on the ground. "You want to stop doing that?" She yelled at the Artificer.

Eclipsa took a deep breath and clapped her hands together.

And then, at that moment, the Artificer transformed. It's Eldritch form now plainly visible before Eclipsa. Limbs sprouted forth and sloshed against the floors and ceilings, and the Artificer groaned so loudly that the cave shook.

Eclipsa stumbled backwards, shocked by what she was seeing. "Oh crap!" She blinked. "Wait. Why aren't I paralyzed? Are you guys…?"

She turned around. Each of her team members had passed out on the floor, and their armor sets had activated, immediately carrying them back behind the barrier.

Once again, the Artificer chased after them. This time, while it couldn't overtake them, it was able to keep up with them, and it seemed to almost blink down the tunnel.

"Shit!" Eclipsa ran after it. A worried expression overtook her face. "That thing can't break the barrier, right?!" She transformed and flew into the tunnel.

She gasped as she got close enough to the barrier to see what was going on.

The members of her team were unconscious behind the barrier.

Lily was passed out―her head in front of the barrier.

The Artificer, in its monstrous form, was standing right next to Lily, seemingly staring at her.

"NO!" Eclipsa screamed out as she flew towards Lily.

The Artificer didn't make a motion to attack her.

Instead, it extended a long appendage to Lily's head and connected with her head.

And the next second, the Artificer imploded into nothing.

The second after that, Eclipsa caught up to Lily, scooped her up, and quickly pulled her behind the barrier.

"Lily?! LILY?! Are you okay? Please be okay!"

She looked all over Lily's body, and didn't see any visible injuries. She was still passed out though.

"Lily? Please honey. Wake up. Are you okay? Lily?"

Lily suddenly began gasping, her eyes darting around. "Who… What…?"

"Lily? Lily, are you okay?"

She blinked at Eclipsa. "Eclipsa? I… I'm fine. What's the matter?"

Eclipsa gasped and hugged Lily close to herself.

Star closed her eyes. "No, you're not."


	67. I, ON THE OTHER HAND...

Day 10.

"GET THEM OFF ME!"

"Lily, what the hell?!"

"THEY'RE ON ME! THEY'RE CRAWLING ON MY BODY! PLEASE, GET THEM OFF!"

"Lily, there's nothing on you!"

"PLEASE! THEY'RE HURTING ME! STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP, STOP!"

"Lily! Listen to me! It's all in your head! It's not real!"

"I DON'T CARE IF IT'S NOT REAL, IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT IT'S NOT REAL WHEN I CAN STILL FEEL IT!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do!"

Star's nails dug into her own skin as she watched Eclipsa and Lily go through many of the same motions she and Marco had gone through. Though it was even worse for them: despite the fact that Eclipsa hadn't been a recipient of the curse herself, the Mirror was non-functional for them, and Eclipsa couldn't use it to mask Lily's psychological symptoms. So as she suffered from the curse, there was no respite.

At this moment, they were in Lily's house, weeks after Lily got cursed. Star had queried the Mirror to work out that Lily lived four months after getting cursed.

"Let me just stay in my bed, Eclipsa. It's the only thing that's not trying to hurt me."

"Lily..."

"I'm fucking serious, okay?"

Eclipsa got up and walked over to the window, watching the Mewmans outside pass by. Eclipsa placed a hand on her head. "I'm so sorry, Lily."

"For what?"

"For this. This is my fault."

Lily curled up in her bed. "You aren't the one who cursed me."

"This happened because I was being reckless with the Artificers. I realized they couldn't hurt me, and I got careless. I figured as long as people stayed behind the barrier or near me, there was no chance they could get hurt." She gripped the window. "I'm such a fucking idiot. And it's not like this is the first time this has happened! If I'd have just been more careful trying to take them down… If I'd just killed them when I had the chance…"

"Stop."

Eclipsa grimaced.

"I told you not to kill them. You chose not to kill them because you were respecting what I want." Lily's expression softened. "So if you want to blame yourself for what happened to me, I'd better share some of the blame."

"No. This isn't your fault, Lily."

"Then neither is it yours. You can either take some of the blame or none of it. I'm not letting you shoulder it all."

Eclipsa continued to stare out the window. Star adjusted her gaze to look at the people who were outside, that Eclipsa was looking at. There wasn't much to say about them, except...

Star blinked. "Hang on a second," she whispered out loud, "did that person just walk by twice in a row?"

The Mirror interpreted that as a query: "YES."

Star looked around. "Take me outside the house for a second. I want to see things from above."

The scene snapped to an aerial view of the house, and Star gasped.

It was a busy area of the town, so it wasn't shocking that many people were walking around. But from above, Star immediately realized that all the people were circling around the house. They were forming a bubble around it through their movements, and some of them were straight-up orbiting the house.

None of them seemed to be aware of what they were doing, but they persisted in their behavior.

"What… is going on…?"

"THIS DEVICE IS UNABLE TO INTERPRET THE STATE OF MIND THAT IS ENCOURAGING THE MEWMANS SHOWN TO ENGAGE IN THIS BEHAVIOR, THOUGH THIS DEVICE COULD ATTEMPT TO SPECULATE ON SUCH MATTERS."

"Do it."

"SPECULATION: THOUGH THE ABERRANT NATURE OF LILY'S FATE STRINGS CANNOT BE CONSCIOUSLY OBSERVED BY LIVING BEINGS, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE UNCONSCIOUS MINDS OF MANY LIVING BEINGS ARE CAPABLE OF DETECTING THOSE ABERRATIONS, AND ARE CONSEQUENTLY ALTERING THEIR BEHAVIOR." Consensus: 0.6709, Confidence: 0.7623.

Star narrowed her eyes. "A month and a half ago, when Marco and I were leaving the Mewnie Archives, I remember noticing that as we ascended back to the library, there was no one still inside the Library, and they all started returning the moment we left. Is that the same phenomenon?"

"SPECULATION: YES, THE PHENOMENON IS THE SAME." Consensus: 0.8793, Confidence: 0.7402.

Star made a note of it in her journal.

"Alright. Back to Lily and Eclipsa."

Eclipsa was now sitting next to Lily, cradling her head. "Does this bother you?"

Lily shook her head. "No. It's very pleasant. Even if nothing else is."

Eclipsa ran her hand through Lily's short hair. "We had someone else on the team start exhibiting the same symptoms as you. They later confessed that they tried to go beyond the barrier without my assistance. It didn't take long to work out what must have happened." Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "It's been a little different for him, though. He said his wife became repulsive to be near. He can't go near literally anyone without feeling disturbed and repulsed."

"Is that going to happen to me? To us?"

"I don't know. I feel like if it were going to happen, it would have happened already. But I don't know how this curse works, or how it differs from person to person."

Star glanced at her notes. "I have a guess. The reason Eclipsa is tolerable for Lily is because Eclipsa doesn't have any Fate Strings attached to her right now, correct?"

"YES, THAT IS CORRECT."

Star drummed her fingers on the floor. "More evidence that things would be a lot better without Fate Strings entirely..."

The output on the Mirror shimmered briefly, but didn't change.

Star glanced at the scene and noticed that Eclipsa and Lily had begun kissing. Star felt… She wasn't quite sure if what she was feeling was creepy, due to the voyeuristic nature of the Mirror, or just jealous that Lily had someone special to her she could seek for comfort. She settled on it being a mixture of both.

Especially when she saw Lily snake her hand under Eclipsa's clothes.

Eclipsa looked surprised. "Are you… okay to do that? This?"

"I need this, Eclipsa. Something to make the world go away, even if only for a little while."

Star averted her gaze. "Alright, I definitely don't need to see this. Skip ahead a month and then turn off the scene."

Star's room returned to normal.

Marco was buried under his bedcovers again.

Star sat down on his bed, next to him. "Hey."

"Hey."

"I'm trying not to spend too much time with Lily and Eclipsa's stuff. It's… ghoulish, watching Lily go through the same stuff as us."

Marco poked his head out from under the bedcovers. "Do what you need to do, Star. That's all we have at this point."

Star was acutely aware of the lack of time they had. "Are you..." she trailed off. "I know you're not okay. Is there anything I can do to make things less… 'not okay'? In an immediate sense."

He drooped his eyes. "Find out what you need to find out from what happened to Lily. I trust you to find the solution. That… hasn't always been easy for me. I think you know that. But you're pretty amazing, Star. If anyone could figure it out, it would have to be you."

Star blushed. "I've been panicking these last few days. I keep finding out new information, but the numbers for you keep going down. I've finally got a real clue as to what I should be doing, and I can't tell whether it's helping or even capable of helping. And every moment I spend doubting myself is a moment lost that could have been spent studying. But if I'm studying the wrong stuff, or not 'getting' what I'm supposed to be getting, those moments of self-doubt are the only things that will let me figure that out." She shook her head. "I want to be worthy of your trust. I really do. But I don't know how I can."

Marco suddenly got up and hugged Star. Star let out a gasping noise as she felt him press against her.

He didn't say anything. He simply hugged her.

Star hugged him back, and tucked her head against his shoulder.

And they sat there, like that, for a long time.


	68. SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT PRINCESS

Day 9.

The Mirror had told Star that she needed to learn about how Lily died.

So Star instructed the Mirror to show her that scene.

…

* * *

Eclipsa knelt over Lily, who was lying on a table in an operating room. Star couldn't tell for certain, but she was pretty sure that the room was situated in their Guild Housing.

Lily was screaming.

Constantly.

The pitch of her screams modulated wildly over time, but she remained utterly inconsolable.

"Lily!" Eclipsa cried out, "do you have any idea where the pain is coming from?"

Lily managed to rein in her screams long enough to breathlessly say "…  _everywhere..._ " before she began screaming again.

Eclipsa looked at the other occupants of the room―several doctors, and several high-profile members of other guilds, in variously colored robes―and raised up her arms. "You guys got anything?!"

A woman who appeared to be part of the Fabricator's Guild walked towards them, holding Eclipsa's journal, which she handed to Eclipsa.

The doctor spoke up, raising her voice to make sure she could be heard over Lily, "it's clearly a mental problem: there's nothing physically wrong with her body."

"Yeah, we already know that! I mean, do we have any better leads than that?" She gestured at the robed individuals.

One Mewman wearing green robes adjusted his glasses. "There's some extremely powerful magic in the local aura, centered on this girl. But it's a kind of magic we've never seen before, and we have no ability to command it."

At that moment, Star noticed that Lily's screams were fading out, and eventually stopped as she slumped back on the table.

Eclipsa turned to Lily again. "Lily? Are you okay?"

She didn't respond.

"Lily?!"

The doctor ran up to her and checked her chest. "Princess, she has no pulse!"

"Wha―Why?"

The doctor shrugged impotently.

Eclipsa bared her teeth. "No." She raised her hands over Lily's chest and used some powerful magic on her. Arcs of energy sprung from her hands to Lily's chest, in a manner that was clearly some kind of Defibrillation. "Come on, Lily! You're stronger than this!"

A few rounds of this, and suddenly Lily jerked to life again. She looked around the room. "Wha…?!"

"Lily! Are you still in pain?"

"It's… Argh! Not as bad as before, but..."

Eclipsa spun to the Green-Robed man. "What about now?"

He closed his eyes for a moment. "The magic has… doubled in intensity."

Eclipsa turned back to Lily. "But you said the pain was less bad now?"

"I think―"

The room violently shook. Eclipsa had to grab the table to steady herself. "What… was that…?"

There was a moment of silence.

Then, an intense burst of light and a crackling of thunder, and the next moment, Lily was screaming again and grasping what used to be her arm, which had exploded in front of them.

Eclipsa stared in horror. "Oh my god." She immediately began to cast more magic, regenerating Lily's arm.

The Aura man spoke up: "Doubled again."

When Lily's arm was repaired, the room shook again, far more violently. Lily gasped as pain overtook her, and Eclipsa put a barrier around Lily's body.

The barrier was shattered in an instant, decapitating Lily.

Eclipsa transformed, and amplified her use of magic to reattach Lily's head to her body and regenerate the portion of her neck which had been destroyed.

Star could feel herself shaking. A part of her was astounded: if they'd had those kinds of spells for Jackie, she might have recovered so much more quickly. But watching Lily suffer mortal wounds to get healed up, over and over, was absurd and intense.

"…  _Eclipsa..._ " Lily's voice was hoarse and weak as she reached for one of Eclipsa's hands. "Please… _There isn't anything you can do..._ "

Tears formed in Eclipsa's eyes. "Don't say that. There has to be something."

"Doubled again."

" _Eclipsa… you've done what you can. I… even if you can keep me alive like this… I don't want to. Not like this."_

"Lily..."

The room shook again.

Star's eyes widened.

A strange tear in the world was forming just above Lily. It was unlike anything she'd seen before: Dimensional Portals, however trippy they were in their own right, still had a regularity to them. A default sense of normal. This rift, on the other hand, had none of that. It had a deep green-blue color to the light emitting from it, and seemed to be billowing forth a similarly colored vapor.

Eclipsa spotted the rift, and immediately poured all her power into containing it. The entire force of her transformation, plus her wand, went into containing it. Star spotted the other guild members contributing their own magic to Eclipsa's spell.

"... _Eclipsa..."_

There was a flash of light.

And…

Something else?

Something which looked… almost like a ribbon? Connecting Lily to the rift?

" _I… love..."_

A massive explosion erupted from the rift. Eclipsa was thrown backwards against the wall, knocking over the other guild members. She immediately scrambled to her feet, and gasped.

Lily's body had been utterly annihilated. The table was gone, and the only things that remained of Lily's body were scattered chunks of gore.

"No. No! NO! Lily, please no!"

Eclipsa stumbled forwards, despair across her whole face.

She slumped to the floor.

"No..."

The Aura man looked visibly disturbed (as did the other guild members) as he approached Eclipsa. "Princess?"

Eclipsa wept in place. No one spoke for several minutes. Finally, in a low, monotonous voice, Eclipsa spoke. "What is it?"

"I was… I was going to say… the Magic began dissipating. It's all gone now."

"… I see."

Eclipsa picked up her journal, which had fallen to the ground, and opened it to a late page in the journal and began to write words that Star had already read in the journal herself.

"Doctor?" Eclipsa finally said quietly.

"Yes?"

"You need to call the time of death."

"Ah." She announced the current time by checking her watch.

"Alright." Eclipsa stood up. "I h-have… I need to… I have to…" She made a shuddering gasp. "I have to notify… h-her family."

The doctor walked up to Eclipsa. "I can do that, princess. I'm so sorry, I..."

"W-why are you sorry?" Eclipsa slowly shambled towards the exit of the room. "It's… It wasn't your f-fault. "Y-you weren't the one who… who..."

At the door frame, Eclipsa stopped.

Then, she began to pound at the wall, hard enough that Star was surprised she didn't break bones.

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!"

Eclipsa screamed, banging on the wall.

"I… This wasn't supposed to..."

She began visibly wheezing.

"Olivia."

The woman who was part of Eclipsa's guild walked towards her. "What?"

"Take an order: all Fabricator's Guild members are to go home, immediately. Everyone is receiving paid vacation, indefinitely. I will contact everyone when we have tasks to take up again."

"Oh… Okay."

Star swallowed. "Pause the scene."

She shuddered as the scene froze.

"I really don't want to see this," she began. "Not again. But… I need to see the last moment again. When the rift formed."

The scene snapped to the moment right before Lily died.

"Play it again, severely slowed down. And mute the audio."

The final moment's of Lily's life began to play out again, in slow motion. Lily saying her goodbye to Eclipsa. Eclipsa doing everything she can to control the rift.

Then, the flash of light. "Pause it!"

The scene was illuminated by the rift. Lily's body was already beginning to come undone. Star averted her gaze from Lily's body, which looked like it was in a scrambled block puzzle, as her limbs and body were painfully shuffled in arbitrary locations.

Star shuddered, and instead focused on the rift, and the ribbon that was extending down from the rift to Lily's body. The ribbon was ethereal and translucent, and surrounded on all sides by the energy rushing forth from the rift.

"What… is that?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUERY."

" _Of course you are_..." Star said quietly. "Which makes me almost want to think..." Star narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't Eclipsa see that?" She grabbed the journal and scanned through for any reference to this 'ribbon'. "Yeah, she doesn't mention it at all." It's possible she missed it in that moment, but..."

An idea struck her. "Mirror, can you simulate the scene being shown to all your 'speculation brains', and then tell me which of the brains report seeing that ribbon?"

The mirror took a very long time to complete this task. "SPECULATION: ONLY THE BRAINS OF MARCO DIAZ AND STAR BUTTERFLY REPORTED SEEING THE RIBBON EMBEDDED INSIDE THE BURST OF ENERGY." Confidence: 1.0000, Consensus: 1.0000

Star folded her arms. "Speculate. Is that a Fate String?"

Another minute. "SPECULATION ERROR: FAILURE TO REACH CONSENSUS." Confidence: 0.4098, Consensus 0.2309.

Star recorded a few notes into her journal.

* * *

That was what the Mirror wanted her to see.

It was impossible not to notice. This was, as far as she could tell, the first time she'd ever been able to see a Fate String.

The fact that only she and Marco could see it made a strange degree of sense. They had the Curse's strings bound to them; that gave them a connection that other people, even Eclipsa, wouldn't have.

But…

The moment she was able to see it was when Lily was about to die.

The mirror seemed to think that being able to see the Fate Strings was more important than specifically learning how to alter or destroy them.

But if the only time she'll be able to see the String binding Marco to the curse is at the exact moment he's about to die…

How will she have enough time to figure anything out before he's straight-up dead?

* * *

"I want to see the funeral," Star finally said. "We never met her personally, but it feels like we learned a lot about her. Some closure would be nice."

The scene transitioned to Eclipsa, wearing her very familiar garments, standing next to Lily's parents, as they gathered in a cemetery. There was no body to bury, so the gravestone was purely symbolic.

Star's eyes widened.

Eclipsa's mother―the queen―was standing by Eclipsa's side.

… Looking bored.

When the ceremony concluded, Eclipsa knelt in front of the gravestone, and remained there while Lily's parents spoke with the rest of her family. A few people came up to offer their condolences to Eclipsa, but she ignored them.

Eventually, the Queen approached her. "Alright, we need to get going. We both have duties back at the palace we need to attend to."

Eclipsa sighed. "You're really going to tell me how to grieve?"

"Eclipsa, honey, I get that she was a good friend to you, but we have more important things to deal with today."

"No we don't."

"Yes, we do! I don't have time to stand around all day, and neither do you. Especially since the longer you're here, the more work for us later."

Eclipsa clenched her teeth. "What is that supposed to mean." it didn't sound like a question.

"We can talk about this at the palace."

"I'm not going anywhere, so you can either talk to me about it now, or not at all," Eclipsa replied coldly.

"Oh for... Eclipsa!" The Queen circled around her daughter, who twisted her body to avoid looking at her. "I can't be the first person to tell you that our citizens have a lot of colorful notions about the nature of your relationship with  _that girl_!"

"What... sort of notions do they have?"

"They...!" The Queen sighed and leaned in close to Eclipsa. "There are rumors that you were... carnally involved with her! And you've seen how they eat that kind of propaganda up! Now, I know that despite everything, you would never be so irresponsible as to compromise yourself with someone else, much less another girl! But the longer we stay here, the more it reinforces your image! The last thing you want as Queen is a populace that won't respect you!"

Eclipsa didn't say anything, but Star could see her shaking.

"Do you think I'm wrong?"

"… We fucked."

"… Excuse me?!"

"Lily... And I... fucked. Each other. Multiple times. Countless times."

"... Why would you say something like that?"

"Oh please!" Eclipsa yelled, standing up, "it's not like you and half the palace weren't spying on us! I bet a bunch of your spies actually watched us going to town on each other!"

"Eclipsa, I don't know what you're talking about, but don't you dare talk like that, especially around other people!"

Some of the guests at the funeral were distracted by the brewing fight between Eclipsa and the Queen.

"They already knew!" Eclipsa growled. "about me and Lily! Because unlike you, they weren't clinging to bigoted ideals about the  _proper way to be a royal_! They weren't so terrified of their... of their... fucking  _approval ratings...!_ That they felt the need to judge us for who we were!"

"I'm not hearing this."

"What? That she and I were lovers? Because we were!"

"Eclipsa!"

Eclipsa wiped tears from her eyes. "You don't get to stand there and act like you're the one being hurt! I lost the only person in the world I love!"

"ENOUGH!" Her mother bellowed. "Eclipsa. I am so... So tired of this. You know, I've never wished for someone's death, but the moment I found out what happened to Lily, I had hoped it would finally convince you to behave yourself, and stop acting out! How committed are you to destroying the royal family?!"

Eclipsa's eyes widened, full of rage.

Then, a neutral expression washed over her face.

"What?"

Eclipsa spoke quietly. "Ah. I just remembered something."

"And what would that be?"

Eclipsa looked around at Lily's family, many of whom were alternately upset or angry at the Queen after her outburst. "We should talk about it in private."

The Queen beckoned her towards the royal carriage.

Eclipsa wrote a short note, and as she passed Lily's mother, she discretely pressed it into her palm.

Lily's mother read the note, and her eyes widened in horror. Eclipsa nodded briefly at her before following her mother.

Star reoriented herself to look at the note, and was confused: the only thing on it was a date, issued two weeks ahead of the current date in Eclipsa's time.

Once inside the carriage, they set off for the palace.

"So? What is it?"

Eclipsa stared out the window. "I spoke with the leader of the Fabricator's Guild. They found out what happened to the Artificers."

"What? Where are they? I'll send men to retrieve them."

"No." Eclipsa continued to stare out the window. "The location of the Artificers is a Level 0 secret. You and I are the only ones who can go there. And we should go there soon."

"… when?"

"Can you meet me at the Fabricator's Guild housing in a few hours?"

* * *

Star, bewildered by Eclipsa's course of action, asked the Mirror to skip to their meeting at the guild later.

Eclipsa had the same neutral expression on her face as before, as her mother approached with two members of the Royal Guard.

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow. "I said..."

Her mother raised a hand. "These two are permitted to follow us. But, since this is a state secret, I've made sure no one else knows where I'm going, or why."

Eclipsa narrowed her eyes slightly. "Fine. Make sure they keep up." She led her mother inside the guild housing. "The Fabricator's Guild gave me access to their compound after hours, so that we could go to where the Artificers are."

"Are they inside the guild housing? Have they just been here the whole time?"

"No, and no," Eclipsa said dispassionately. "There's a portal that leads directly to their location."

They descended through the guild housing and found the portal room that Eclipsa had helped set up. The portal was already open.

"Where does this go?"

"To a location in the Mewnie Outerlands." Eclipsa tilted her head. "I don't think we'll have any trouble, but maybe it's good the guards are coming with us."

 _Eclipsa… What are you doing?_ Star subvocalized her thoughts.

Eclipsa stepped through the portal, followed by her mother and the two guards. She pointed them towards the cave.

The cave was in a noticeably different shape than it was before. Despite the non-euclidian nature of the cave's interior, an entire infrastructure had been built up by Eclipsa's team over the period of time they'd been spending studying the Artificers.

"The Fabricator's Guild told me that they were working on trying to get the Artificers out themselves, but when they realized the… sensitive nature of what they were working on, they abandoned the project and deferred their information to me, so that we could deal with things securely. They realized that they were treading on potential state secrets, so they chose not to dig any further."

Eclipsa's mother folded her arms. "Eclipsa, I've never seen anything like this before."

"Neither have I." Eclipsa said quietly. "Here, it should be this way."

Star spoke again, "Eclipsa…?"

Eclipsa, her mother, and the two royal guards approached the barrier. The last time Star saw the barrier, it had been covered in warning signs and diagrams, but it looked now like those signs had been hastily torn down.

They passed through the barrier. Eclipsa led them down the long tunnel to the Antechamber.

The antechamber was empty, except for them. The Mirror hung suspended in midair in the middle of the room, and a quick query to the Mirror confirmed that the time distortion trap was now active around it.

Eclipsa led her mother around the trap to the far edge of the room.

"Do they have anything to do with that Mirror in the middle of the room?" Eclipsa's mother asked.

"I don't believe so." Eclipsa stopped in place. "Alright, this should be a good spot."

"A good spot for what?"

"You'll want to stand near me."

"What? Why?"

"They can't hurt us if you're near me."

A shadow crept into the room, and immediately bellowed out and charged towards Eclipsa.

The Queen stood near Eclipsa, and the two Royal Guards drew their swords. "Eclipsa, what is that… thing!?"

Eclipsa didn't say anything, she just stared at the Artificer, her face scrunched up in concentration. The Artificer couldn't get close enough to attack them, so it flailed impotently in her direction. But it also seemed distracted, Star observed.

"Eclipsa?!"

Eclipsa continued to stare at the Artificer.

"Eclipsa, what is the meaning of this?!"

"… I have a question for you, mother."

The Queen turned to Eclipsa, as several more Artificers gathered around them, each of them trying to attack Eclipsa, but being unable to get close enough to injure any of them. "Wait, what?!"

"Do you remember? Years and years ago, when I killed that monster child?"

"Yes, I remember that, what does that have to do with anything?"

"I remember being lauded as a hero. Eclipsa, 'Slayer of Monsters'. That was the cutesy, cliched title people gave me, to patronize me for being a child that could kill other children. I remember you telling me how proud you were of me, for what I did."

"Eclipsa…?"

"But there's something I don't quite remember, and it would help me out if you could remember it."

"What?"

"Do you remember what the Monster kid's name was?"

"I… Why would I remember that?"

"It's just a name." Eclipsa's voice seemed almost like she was half-asleep. "I just can't remember the name."

"Eclipsa, what is going on?"

"What was the name, mom?"

"I don't know! We didn't find out her name! Because why would we bother finding out the name of a brutal monster? We were proud that you were showing that you could be a strong and effective leader of our people, we weren't going to spare a thought for the dangerous beast who, had she gotten her way, would have killed you instead! Eclipsa, what does she have to do with anything? Where are the Artificers? What are these things surrounding us? What is going on?!"

Eclipsa took a deep breath. "Ah. Thank you. I remembered it now."

"What?"

Eclipsa turned to face her mother, her face livid with pent-up rage.

"His name, mother, was Minos."

Before the Queen could respond, Eclipsa waved her hand. Star didn't see any magic being cast.

One of the Artificers transformed into its physical form at that moment.

When the Queen and her guards saw the transformed Artificer, they promptly fell to the ground, paralyzed.

Eclipsa looked down on them, rage still dominating her face.

She knelt down to her mother,

and picked up her crown,

and held it close to her chest,

as she walked away.

Star gasped as the Artificers closed in behind Eclipsa to immediately bash away at the Queen and her guards. Within seconds, all three bodies had been reduced to nothing more than blood and guts smeared across the floor.

Eclipsa carefully avoided the trap as she made her way back to the Mewnie tunnel. She had a stolid, composed expression on her face as she exited the Antechamber, not sparing a moment to look back at the three corpses behind her.


	69. YOU NEED TO INTERVENE, NOW

Day 8.

"Something happened."

Star and Marco were eating lunch with Moon, Rafael, and Angie.

Star tapped her plate with her fork, pondering how to respond to her mother's suggestion. "I saw what happened to Eclipsa's Mother."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Did you." It wasn't a question.

Star looked warily at her mother. "Do you know anything about that?"

"I know her mother died when Eclipsa was still young. I don't know anything else beyond that."

"Hmm."

"Do you… want to share what you discovered?"

Star slumped her shoulders. "I'm not sure. It's kind of… Morbid, to say the least. More-so than just a parent dying while their child is young."

Angie and Rafael looked visibly uncomfortable.

"And really, the  _what_  isn't what's bothering me. It's more about how I feel about it that's bothering me."

Marco quietly ate without saying a word; this was pretty standard for him these days. Star hadn't yet spoken to him about how Eclipsa killed her mother.

"I'll tell you some other time, mom. When I've got fewer other things on my mind and I can properly digest it."

Moon nodded. "Sure."

* * *

"So basically," Star said, after recounting the events to Marco, back in her room, "I watched Eclipsa murder her mother, and two innocent guards, and I don't even feel like it was the wrong thing to do."

He nodded. "Yeah… That's not a super cool thing to say to your own mother. 'Hey, I watched Eclipsa murder her mom, and I feel great about her decision to do so!'"

Star flopped back on her bed. "Is this another effect of the curse?"

Marco shrugged.

"I mean, if you really think about it, Eclipsa is the one who created the curse. Like, she obviously didn't create it on purpose; it was just the result of what she messed up when she was trying to hurt the Artificers. But the more I think about it, the more it feels like at least a part of this Curse is connected to her, somehow. The longer we stay afflicted, the more we think about things the way she would. In this… I don't know how to describe her philosophy..."

"Cold Utilitarianism, I think," Marco said quietly. "Or something like that."

Star nodded. "Yeah."

"For what it's worth, I feel the same way." He narrowed his eyes. "Her mother was rotten."

Star held her arm up. "Is it moral to wish death on someone, if that someone has caused untold harm towards others? Even if they themselves haven't killed anyone or threatened or conspired to kill anyone?"

Marco sighed and flopped backwards onto his bed. "I think you're giving the Queen more benefit of the doubt than she deserves."

"How do you figure?"

He narrowed his eyes. "The tiniest actions of a ruler, like Queen of Mewnie, affects millions of lives. A 1% change to the tax code can literally mean the difference between life and death for a tiny proportion of its citizens. Eclipsa's mother, meanwhile, actively aided and abetted Child Abusers in her government. Maybe she did it unwittingly, but even if so, the difference between 'Evil' and 'Incompetent' is basically irrelevant when you're talking about someone with that kind of political power. And then you have the ways she scapegoated the Monsters in and around her kingdom for all of her own failings, and how she was perpetuating a deeply bigoted culture that directly harmed her own child, not to mention countless others..." He took a breath.

Star chuckled briefly at Marco's spiel.

"What I'm trying to say is: You have to make a decision: is the literal life of a Queen or King more valuable than the comfort, safety, security, and happiness of Millions of other people? I'm not saying there's definitely a right answer to that question, but I do know that I don't know what my answer would have been, and knowing what Eclipsa's answer was… Well. I don't think I could hate her. Not completely."

"That's fair, but…" Star rotated herself to look at Marco. "If the difference between 'Evil' and 'Incompetent' is irrelevant when it comes to tremendous power, political or otherwise, then Eclipsa needs to be judged on that basis too. Because by her own admission, both in the scenes I've witnessed and from her Impression speaking to me in the cave, she made bad decisions that led to what happened to us. She made a lot of attempts to make things right, but you're still cursed. She's not evil, but she's a candidate for incompetency, and as you said, there's not really a difference."

Marco nodded. "I guess, but… I think intent has to matter too."

"Do you think Eclipsa's Mother wasn't genuinely attempting to make things better for her people? Even if she was doing a bad job of it?" Star rolled back onto her back as she finished talking.

"There was something she said when Eclipsa tried to confront her, while the trial was going on. How she thought that Eclipsa was just trying to besmirch the reputations of the Artificers. How she was making up things for attention, or as part of a personal, petty vendetta. We didn't watch the entirety of Eclipsa's childhood, and I doubt you have time to scan over her childhood to get a proper sense of her character. But in the entire time that we were watching her, did she ever once act like someone who was just trying to attract attention to herself?"

"Not at all. She was impulsive and reckless, and those qualities legitimately caused problems for a lot of people. But she wasn't an attention-seeker. She seemed to prefer avoiding attention."

"You were the one who said that you could tell a lot about a person by how they judge other people. That a lot of the time, the flaws we perceive in others say more about ourselves than they do about them." Marco leaned on his side, looking at Star with an amused look on his face. "Setting aside the fitting irony that you would describe anyone as impulsive and reckless, my sense of Eclipsa's mother is that her image of Eclipsa as a rabblerouser, as someone who is just attention-seeking… Being, by the way, someone who spent a lot of her own time obsessing over her personal image and lecturing Eclipsa about maintaining her personal image..." He drooped his face. "I guess what I'm saying is that the person who cared more about looking good than being a good leader was the person who would have let a Guild of Perverts continue practicing by deluding herself into believing that nothing like that could ever happen under her command, and that anyone insisting otherwise was delusional."

Star sighed. "I'm not going to dispute your character assessment of me. I… Literally do not have the energy to do that, and to be honest… You're right about me. You always are." She smiled briefly. "I just find it convenient that I, someone who has so much in common with Eclipsa, am so quick to dismiss even a wanton act of Murder as something that was justified."

They both went silent.

"When did morality get so complicated?" Star said quietly. "I mean, this should have been the most morally clear scenario ever. The bad guys are a Cult of Rapists! The good guy was a woman who literally rescued children from them!"

"Because Eclipsa got forced into a no-win scenario. The only way she could bring justice against the Artificers was by breaking the laws of her country. She had to actively lie to hundreds of people, even her own allies, just to try to find a way to bring some of those kids home, and even then, it doesn't seem like she ever succeeded in doing that. We don't have the luxury of personal morality when so many terrible things are at stake. You can't wait for the proper, morally righteous way to solve a problem if people might literally die or be abused while you wait for that method to surface."

Star nodded. "I feel like this is the longest conversation you and I have had in a long time."

Marco chuckled quietly.

"I know it's such a useless question these days, but… How are you doing?"

"It's not useless. It's just…" Marco shrugged. "Okay. Maybe it is. I'm just… in a kind of limbo, I guess. The Mirror says I'm supposed to die in a week. I've spent so much time crying that I just don't feel… Anything, anymore. Except for sometimes, when I feel pissed that you don't have a definitive answer. Like, even if you found out, for certain, that there was no way to save me, that would be better than sitting here not knowing. Worrying that we'll find out a way too late." He sat up. "You were supposed to have gleaned some kind of incredible insight from learning about Lily though, right?"

Star's eyes widened. "I saw something, at the time that Lily died, that Eclipsa either didn't see or was incapable of seeing."

"What?"

"A Ribbon."

"…  _What?_ "

"I know, and the Mirror won't explain things to me. But… I think it was a Fate String."

"Really?"

"It seemed to be connected directly to Lily, and also to the rift of energy that obliterated her. I confirmed with the Mirror that you and I are the only people capable of seeing it."

"That's… good, isn't it?"

"I don't know. Supposedly, simply being able to see it is incredibly important. But I still know nothing about how to interact with it."

"What about your research into Fate Magic?"

"All the theory in the world doesn't help when the most basic step, 'how do I develop an extra sense' continues to allude me." Star narrowed her eyes. "That was supposed to be why we needed the Fate Mana in the first place, because it would let me do that."

Marco got up from bed, and walked over to Star. Star sat up. "Marco?"

He sat down next to her and hugged her. "Mirror. Calibrate yourself. Wait a minute before you turn the filter back on."

Star reflexively pulled her feet up from the floor and huddled against Marco, covering her nose as a foul stench erupted from the now disfigured world. "Why'd you tell it to wait to remask the world?"

Marco pointed around the room. "There's one thing I haven't quite worked out. Our very perception of space distorts when we see the world like this, right? Like, gravity never quite feels right. Objects seem to have different sizes and shapes. You were even able to fight an Artificer without feeling threatened, even though nothing about his physical shape or combat ability had changed. Eclipsa said in her journal that Artificers were part Physical, part Astral. But to what degree does that apply to the curse as well?"

Star's eyes widened. "You're saying… If we get down to the wire, and I haven't found a solution..."

"Turn off the filter. I don't know… Maybe it'll be the final clue we need."

Star held Marco's hand while the Mirror waited to reactivate the filter.

"Star?"

"Yeah?"

"I really don't want to die."

"I don't want you to die either."

"No, I mean… For the first time since I got cursed, I really specifically feel like I have something to live for. Someone to live for."

"Marco..."

"What I said before still stands. I don't know if I could ever like you the way you like me. But I want to find out if it's possible."

Star chuckled. "So what you're really saying is, you want to be alive so you can break my heart properly."

"Maybe. Would that be so bad?"

"Maybe not."

The room returned to normal.

Marco glanced at the Mirror as he let go of Star. "Mirror. What are my odds of surviving this Curse?"

He grabbed the Mirror as it rendered his odds.

He smiled, and showed the interface to Star.

"0.2309."

* * *

**No update will be posted on Wednesday, 2017-09-06. Regular Updates will resume on Sunday, 2017-09-10**


	70. WHAT A BAD PLAN

Day 7.

"Your Grace."

The date that Eclipsa had handed to Lily's mother corresponded to the date of the Funeral for Eclipsa's mother. The corpse was a fake double, created using magic by Eclipsa, and bore only the symptoms of a blood clot in her brain. Even had the body not been a fake, the 'body' was found hours after the event would have taken place, and it would have been impossible to revive her even with the powerful resurrection magicks they had access to.

Eclipsa was crowned Queen, and attended the funeral a few days later wearing a veil. Star wasn't sure what her official excuse was, given that her only frame of reference regarding veils at weddings was that widows were supposed to wear veils at funerals, not daughters. But she had a pretty good sense what her real reason was: Eclipsa hadn't shed a tear the whole ceremony. She'd been plenty teary-eyed at Lily's funeral, but at her mother's funeral, she seemed almost bored.

A state of mind which broke the moment Lily's mother―who had taken the date as an implicit invitation to the event―addressed her.

Eclipsa shook her head. "You can still address me as Eclipsa. You can always address me as such."

Lily's mother looked hesitant. "Perhaps… 'Your Grace' is better."

Eclipsa flitted her eyes in her direction. "I see."

"As a mother, who witnessed firsthand the love between my daughter and the woman she dreamed of living the rest of her life with, and who witnessed the way that your mother tore at that dream every moment of her life, I cannot condemn what you did. There were many people I witnessed who suffered because of her, and not just those children..." She shook her head. "However. As a person of Moral Character, I cannot condone what you did either, and as a parent who still has a family, whose security and well-being matter greatly to me, and whose well-being would be threatened if the specter of your treason were ever to implicate us, I'm horrified by what you did. For the sake of myself, and my family, I'd like to ask that this be the last time we ever come into contact with each other."

Eclipsa stared forwards for several seconds before responding. "Very well then." She paused again before continuing, "if you wish, I can have you removed from the Capital. You and your family will be given a comfortable home far outside the Capital, at no expense incurred to you. That will minimize the chances that you and I ever see each other again, and you might prefer to get away from a place which, I suspect, is bringing you more negative memories than positive."

Lily's Mother shook her head. "One more way to connect us to you. If we move away, we'll find a way to do it ourselves. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be cruel, but..."

Eclipsa shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for. Not to me, nor to anyone else. It was my fault what happened to Lily. Maybe she didn't see it that way, but it's the truth. Because that's what I'm good at. It's what I've always been good at. Hurting people. Minos, Lily, mom…"

"Your… Eclipsa…"

"Maybe I can work that to my advantage. Maybe hurting people will make me able to be a good Queen. Or maybe being able to hurt people so well is what made my mother such an awful Queen. I guess I'll find out."

Lily's mother wrapped her arms around herself. "Lily loved you. She truly believed that you were what the People of Mewnie needed, more than anything else. I think the responsible thing to do, if you want to honor her memory, is do nothing less than whatever it takes to represent that image of you."

Eclipsa didn't respond to that.

"That's all. I hope you make a good Queen."

Star sighed, watching the scene play out. "Prepare to be disappointed. Alright, we've seen enough. Turn the scene off."

The Mirror reacted to Star's query, and she stretched on the floor of her room.

She had seven days left. Unless she had no leads left, she wasn't going to spend it watching how Eclipsa covered up her lies. Not when it had nothing to do with Fate Magic.

Star scribbled a few notes into her journal.

There was a strong lead for her to follow now. The Mirror wouldn't confirm it, but that ribbon that she saw stretching from the Rift to Lily… That was a Fate String. It had to be. And not just any Fate String: the Fate String that bound Lily to the Curse. What else could it be?

So why was she able to see it in that moment?

The magic impelled by the String was powerful in that moment, for sure. Was that the difference?

"Mirror," Star began, as Marco perked up from the corner of the room, "turn the filtering off, just for me."

She jumped up from the floor as it attempted to grab at her clothes using a thousand blood-red hands, too smooth yet too rough. The wind howled through the room as everything else, save for Marco, began to buckle and strain, splintering and bleeding and gasping and suckling.

She looked directly at Marco, who looked back at her with empathetic concern on his face. She looked up and down his body, and saw no ribbons attached to him.

Star rubbed her eyes with one hand (the other clutching her nose shut) and began to walk around him. "Uhh, Star?"

"I'm trying to see if I can see the Ribbons."

Marco held up his arms helplessly, to avoid obstructing her view, but it was to no avail.

She spent a few more minutes trying to see if anything could be observed, but the smell was getting through her fingers, and she was starting to lose her focus. "Mirror, reenable the filter."

The room returned to normal, and Star collapsed onto her bed, overwhelmed from the assault on her senses. She wasn't certain, but it felt like the effects of the Curse were still somehow getting worse.

"Anything?"

Star shook her head. "I don't know what I expected: the Ribbon didn't show up for Lily until the last moment before she died."

Marco curled up. "Right."

Star shook her head. "Sorry, I shouldn't..."

"Do what you have to, Star."

"Right." She leaned down to her journal. "Maybe, if I just―"

* * *

The moment she leaned over, the world fell out from under her.

She fell into a formless void, far removed from the world she was in.

"What the…?!"

Her voice, though she could hear it, didn't vibrate against her head or throat, like it normally did. Almost like it was coming from a source adjacent to herself, but which definitely wasn't herself.

She couldn't see anything, anywhere, in any direction.

At least, not until…

"Wait… is that…?"

The dots. The structures composed of the dots. She knew where this was. The Fate Dimension.

Star collapsed onto a road, not unlike the one she had traveled the first time she was here.

As she struggled to get up, she grumbled "What…? Why am I―"

"Because I invited you here."

The voice was unmistakable, the quiet, yet commanding voice belonging to Fate.

Star looked up at Fate, who stood over her, with a pleasant look on his face.

He pointed to a table and chairs, made of the same strange material as the rest of the world. "Come, have a seat."

Star jumped up and took up an aggressive stance. "How did you bring me here?" her voice still sounding somehow detached from herself.

Fate raised an eyebrow. "Well, technically, I haven't brought you anywhere. Physically, you remain in the same location as before, doing… whatever you were doing at the time. And your mind hasn't gone anywhere either. I've simply supplied an overlay over your mind. You might not be familiar with the concept, but―"

"I know how it works," Star said, warily eying him.

Fate smiled. "Oh good, then I won't have to explain it. Now sit." He pushed a chair away from the table and offered it to Star.

"Is that a form of Fate Magic? The thing where you override a person's senses?"

Fate snorted. "What? No. It's regular magic."

Star stared at him, trying to work out what he was doing. Personality-wise, this was very different from the cold, indifferent God she'd met two weeks ago.

"Are you going to sit down?"

Still eying him, Star sat in the chair provided to her. "What do you want?"

"Ah, what do I want..." He smiled at Star. "What I want, is a mutually beneficial arrangement. See, Miss Butterfly, I've been considering the circumstances and proposals of our last encounter with each other. Ruminating on how we met, how we engaged and dealt with each other. And I've come to a very important realization. That I have been… somewhat unfair to you."

"No kidding." Star didn't try to mask the sarcasm in her voice.

"Well, allow me to explain my position further: see, the arrangement that has been put before me remains the same as before. I've been promised a soul. The Mangled Strings that are wrapped around your friend are the mechanism by which I'll be able to claim and collect that soul after he passes. But you already know this."

"Yes." There was a detail to how Fate had described the situation that was new information to Star: the idea that the Curse itself facilitated Fate's acquisition of Marco's life, beyond the mere fact that it kills him. But she didn't want to needle on that point.

"The last time you and I spoke, you seemed adamant that you ought to trade your own life for your friend's life. What I have to confess is that at the time, I found your proposal very… unintuitive. There were any number of things you might have been able to bargain with… Starting with your own life is, suffice to say, a very strange gambit."

Star narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well, why start with your own life? Why not offer someone else's life entirely?"

Star gripped at her legs. "Because you can only make that kind of offer for someone else who's also affected by the same version of the Curse, right?"

Fate scoffed. "Now why would you think that?"

Star's eyes widened.

"The Truth is, Miss Butterfly, I think I'm starting to understand the position you're in, now that I've had time to ponder it. And additionally, the benefit of hindsight has allowed me to understand that I underrated your original proposal. To the point that I'm prepared to offer you a far better deal than what you initially proposed to me."

"… And what would that be?"

Fate nodded. "You offered your own life to save the life of your friend. You offered many other things additionally, which tells me that you don't quite grasp the value of what I'd have to do for you to grant your request. Regardless, what I am offering you is simple: a life for a life is a constant that I must maintain. There's no getting around that. But… Perhaps the life you give need not be yours."

"Who would I give to you instead?"

"Well, that's part of the deal I'm offering you: you get to make that choice yourself."

Star felt her palms grow sweaty. "I… I could just choose anyone?"

"Well, there are restrictions. It would have to be someone whose relationship to you could be genuinely described as friendship, or more. The person must be Sapient; that seems like the sort of thing that would go without saying, given the first restriction, but the funny thing about a lot of your Mortals is that you have some very funny ideas about the qualifications for 'Friendship', and I want to ensure there's no ambiguity on that point. And the Iris must be able to confirm that their odds of dying in the next two decades is no more than Five Percent. Speaking of: that's also part of the deal. In addition to whomever you choose to take your friend's place, you will also return the Iris to me. But, should you fulfill all of those conditions, I will reconfigure the Strings bound to your friend, sparing his life, and freeing the both of you from the effects of those Mangled Strings, taking the life of the person you choose instead."

Star stared at Fate, whose face was calm and pleasant.

"Are those terms acceptable to you, Miss Butterfly?"


	71. SEE, LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!

One of Star's most vivid memories was an Alarm Clock going off.

Almost a year before she'd even met Marco, she'd invited her friends to the palace for a party, while Moon and River were making a diplomatic visit to another kingdom. The party had been spectacular, but it had left the palace in a tremendously messy state.

The morning after, Star awoke to an Alarm Clock that had been blaring for hours. It was supposed to give her enough time to organize a cleanup routine, but she'd been sleeping through it. Being several hours behind not only gave her less time to clean up, but also gave her less of a cleanup crew, as many of the friends she had intended to recruit into the process had departed, having been bothered by the alarm.

So Star set about cleaning the Palace as best she could. The servants had been ordered away so that they couldn't report the party to her parents, so Star had to clean the palace on her own.

All while the alarm kept blaring, audible in nearly every room of the palace.

Star had walked up to the alarm to shut it off, but centimeters from the switch, Star stopped herself. She allowed the alarm to keep blaring as she worked. She allowed it to fill her head as she worked. And she cleaned faster than she ever had in her life. Possibly faster than anyone had ever cleaned in their life.

Because the alarm did something important for her, something she hadn't anticipated: the noise blocked the voices. The impulsive voices that told her to goof off and be ridiculous. The anxious voices insistent that they didn't have enough time to clean. The apathetic voices that told her to stop bothering, because it didn't matter.

Having the alarm going allowed only one voice through: the fight or flight response driving her to fix her mess before anyone important found out about it.

And she did. Not only did she fully clean up the palace, she actually got praised by Moon and River for having tried to make the palace nicer. They were proud of her initiative.

As Star sat in front of Fate, whose kindly offer had been made with a smile, whose offer was exactly what she needed to save Marco, but whose offer came with its own sinister catch, she remembered what it felt like, cleaning while hearing that alarm. The alarm that only lets through the voice most important to hear at that moment.

Because now, like then, only one voice was getting through: the voice that knew, that even though the offer was clearly faustian by its very nature, that even though the offer was presented to not even be good enough to be 'too good to be true' (because it certainly wasn't), that something else entirely was very,

Very,

Wrong,

with this offer.

* * *

It was first important to consider the ways it wasn't wrong.

The offer was probably legitimate. It wasn't nearly sweet enough to be fake.

Fate wasn't offering her a "Get out of Jail Free" card. As far as he was concerned, someone had to die. The offer wasn't a repudiation of that fact, it was simply letting Star choose someone who wasn't Marco or herself. In some respects, it was almost a more cruel offer than simply doing nothing.

…  _Nothing…_

_Why does the word 'nothing' feel special to me?_

Question: Could she possibly justify sacrificing someone to guarantee that Marco would live?

Answer: It depended entirely on whom she chose.

Question: So whom could she choose from?

The obvious answer was one of Marco's parents. Rafael and Angie were both exactly selfless enough that they might actually get mad at Star if she refused the offer: 'Better one of us, than him,' they would say. Of the two of them, Rafael would probably be the one to explicitly request that Star sacrifice him to save Marco. He would do that. If he found out that Star refused this offer, after letting Marco die… It would devastate him.

And if it wasn't one of them, there weren't any other good options. Neither of her parents would offer themselves; however much Marco meant to Star, Moon and River were political leaders. And Star couldn't bear the thought of losing her parents.

But that was the rub: the reason her parents were off the table was almost certainly the same reason Marco's parents were off the table as well. She could only imagine Marco would have a similar reaction to the suggestion that one of his parents take his place.

Who else?

It felt scummy to even consider Jackie. And Star ruled her out fast. She was the victim in her own bad circumstances. What kind of monster would she have to be to justify making Jackie the sacrifice? Plus, it wasn't clear where the line was drawn on 'friends': Jackie might not be close enough to her to qualify.

Star looked down at the table, her legs visible through the dot-lattice structure of the table top.

That wasn't even the bigger problem.

Question: How could she possibly justify this to herself?

There was a big difference between sacrificing herself to save Marco, and sacrificing someone else. Even if they consented to it,  _even if_  Star found someone who, in no uncertain or misleading terms, declared that it would be better if they died instead of Marco, what kind of value judgment was that for her? What kind of person makes sincere claims to the idea that, for purely selfish and personal reasons, one person should be allowed to die to save the life of another?

One some level, a person has the right to decide for themselves whether they should die to save someone else. But deciding that for someone else?

And yet…

Star had spent 2 months trying to save Marco, and had at one point even been willing to make that sacrifice with her own life. Even with all her new leads, she still had no clear idea how she was going to save him. Even if she found a way to save him, would she have time to plan it? Even if she planned it, what was stopping her from making a mistake? Eclipsa had had to perform literal miracles using her magic to keep Lily alive for a few more seconds, and even then it had been in vain. Even if Star found a way to save Marco, what if she screwed up?

The worst part wasn't the idea that she wouldn't find a way to save his life. The worst part was the possibility that she  _would_  find a way, and simply execute it improperly.

And there were a thousand other variables. Even in spite of yesterday's good news from the Mirror, the odds that they would completely cure the curse (as opposed to simply preventing its lethality) were still miniscule. Fate's offer wasn't merely to save Marco's life: it was also to ensure that they both be freed from the curse; something she had no guarantee of ensuring herself.

And what about―

Fate's voice interrupted Star's thought process. "Ah, I should mention. I'm willing to give you up to 20 hours to decide whom you would offer in his place. I doubt you would be able to make this kind of decision on the spot, with no time to consider it." Fate continued to smile serenely as he suggested this to Star.

So she'd have time to discuss it with Marco's parents. Ask them how they felt about it.

It was a path out. It was a path to saving Marco.

And it would work. Fate wouldn't offer this deal if it weren't legitimate. He wouldn't…

He wouldn't…

… Wait...

Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Star looked at the expression on Fate's face. It was supposed to convey Congeniality. Pleasantry. But there was something else to it, an emotion that shouldn't be there.  _Confidence_.

And then she realized.

Star felt her cheeks flush with anger as she realized her mistake.

The question she'd forgotten to ask.

She was so shocked by the offer itself that she got distracted by trying to work out whether she could justify the deal, morally or ethically or logistically, and she never got to the much more important question:

_Why?_

Why is Fate offering this to her? What does he gain from this?

He claims that the reason he's doing this is because he feels the circumstances are unfair.

But that's a lie, isn't it? This isn't about right or wrong. About what's fair or not.

Because if it were, he'd have made this kind of deal in the first place. If he were really dedicated to "fairness" as a concept, he'd have offered to spare Marco's life in the first place, given that none of this was his fault.

At the very least, he'd have taken Star's life as sufficient payment when she offered it, without having to be worn down by Star's arguments.

No. So what does he want?

_...Nothing…_

Wasn't he the one who said  _'if I do nothing, I still get what I want'_?

He's clearly not doing nothing.

Which implies that doing nothing might not give him what he wants.

Star's eyes widened as she understood the implications of Fate's actions.

Fate thinks there's a genuine chance she could succeed!

Whatever odds the Mirror has been feeding her, Fate clearly feels that the odds are far more favorable to Star than reported. Or maybe he just considers a 22% chance of failure to be far too risky.

He's not making this deal out of the kindness of his heart. He's making this deal because he's worried she might actually succeed, and if she succeeds…

Star strained herself.

She still didn't know what Fate really wanted. Star had once accused him of directly wanting Marco to die; at this point, if his offer is genuine, then it was never specifically about Marco. To Fate, the details of  _who_  dies is clearly unimportant, it's only important that  _someone_  dies. Specifically through the Curse.

If it's not important that it be Marco, then whom?

Wait.

Why is it important that it be a friend of hers?

At first, Star presumed that it was some kind of ethical restriction; to prevent Star from just offering up one of her enemies as payment. It would solve a lot of her problems if she could just make Ludo suffer the Curse instead of Marco.

But that, too, doesn't make sense. Why would Fate care about Star's moral compass? What difference does it make to him? Does he see this as a kind of Karmic Punishment for her? Or as a secret test of her character? He has no reason to care about any of that.

So is it about Fate Magic itself? Zemd had suggested that Fate could only transfer the Curse to someone else afflicted by the same version of the Curse. He lied about a lot of things, but maybe the curse does still require someone directly connected to Star via a String of Fate. That would make sense: what else is a friendship than a connection across the very fabric of time and space itself?

But there's a problem with that theory.

He's a  _God_.

Question: What kind of God has arbitrary restrictions on how his powers can be used?

Answer: He doesn't.

He  _could_  simply transfer the Curse to someone else completely unrelated. There's probably no physical limitation preventing him from doing that.

But he doesn't  _want_  to.

Because, for reasons only he seems to understand, it would be bad if he made direct alterations to the Fate Strings like that. Alterations where he shifts the Curse to someone else along pre-existing Fate Strings are, apparently, perfectly acceptable to him, but constructing new ones is bad.

Is it because he's worried about some kind of existential threat? Like if altering the Strings in a bad way might unravel the universe?

That's tenuous. Eclipsa shredded her own Strings and corrupted the Strings of millions of her own citizens when she attempted to Curse the Artificers, not to mention the Curse itself and its impact on the Artificers. A single act to save one person from dying couldn't possibly be all that significant in the face of all that.

So what's the actual reason?

Star refocused herself.

Fate already directly interfered with things once. Like when he opened the portal inside the Cave so that the Artificers could Astrally Project to Star.

Question: What makes a God lure two teenagers into a cave, just to have them Cursed, so that one of them  _might_  die? What is any of this even about?

Wait.

Two Artificers.

Two kids.

One curse for each.

The plan wasn't to Curse Marco; it was to Curse both of them!

But Fate forgot that Star being adjacent to Marco would afflict her with a non-lethal version of the Curse, and make her immune to any further applications of the Curse.

Or maybe the Artificers just screwed up.

Areana had thrown one of them backwards. Not both of them. Just one of them.

But Zemd was out of position. Or maybe he just didn't know what the plan was.

Maybe they weren't expecting Star to have such strong feelings for Marco, that would trigger Areana's physical incarnation before they were ready to separately curse them both.

Maybe passing in and out of the Time Distortion Trap that Eclipsa had left behind screwed up their plan.

But that's not the important part.

Star killed the last Artificer, and the Curse remains on Marco, preparing to kill him.

But now, Star has a genuine chance of saving him. Of preventing the curse from killing him.

So Fate decides his last act of interference is to offer Star this deal. To ensure she can't prevent him from dying.

To make sure this damn curse gets one last kill.

And it comes back to the same question: _Why?_

Star racked her brain for one last detail. This was what it all hinged on.

Why would…

An errant memory returned to Star.

Four weeks ago.

She'd asked the Mirror how long the Cave has existed.

And remarked upon how, even though the Mirror had been willing to talk about the cave previously, it had suddenly been unable to discuss the cave.

…  _Son of a―_

The Mirror didn't gain those restrictions because they repaired it: it gained those restrictions because Fate added them to prevent them from asking about it! Between when Star and Marco first acquired the Mirror, and when Star asked that question, Fate must have altered the Mirror!

The cave has only existed there for a couple thousand years: lifetimes and Generations in Mewman terms, sure, but a tiny fraction of time in terms of Gods.

Which means someone put it there.

Someone like a God.

And later, the Artificers discover it, and use it to traffic their victims, through entirely different realities.

But maybe they weren't the first.

Eclipsa's impression said that Fate had made the entity under the cave―She was pretty clearly another God―cross. Enough to regret having given Fate his divinity in the first place.

She could have seen what what was happening. Witnessing the Artificer's crimes would make anyone angry. But then why didn't She try to stop it?

It's possible that She, too, endorsed it. That all Gods are as sick as Fate, as the Artificers.

But then why show Eclipsa's impression to Star? Why do something that so obviously is a boon to her?

No.

Whomever She is, she wants the same thing as Star.

But She can't do it herself.

Almost like…

She's trapped down there.

And she's been trapped for centuries.

Possibly even Millennia?

But then along came Eclipsa.

Whose powerful magical potential gave her the ability to see Her.

And whether she consciously knew it or not, she became Her champion.

She imbued Eclipsa with the power to Curse the Artificers.

But maybe She did more than that.

Maybe She engineered a mechanism into that Curse which would ensure her freedom.

In such a way that, once the Artificers were killed, She would be freed.

But the Artificers corrupted the spell, and reversed it, turning it into a sealing ritual. Who knows if they did that intentionally, or if it was just part of their attempts to subvert Eclipsa's plans, but that's what they did.

And so long as the Curse does what it's supposed to do, She remains trapped down there.

But Star's about to break one of the Seals. By saving Marco's life.

Maybe that's the difference between getting Cursed by an Artificer and killing them. If an Artificer Curses you, and you die, that Seal gets stronger. But if you kill an Artificer or prevent the Curse from killing you, the Seal weakens.

Star sat, dumbfounded by this deduction.

The Curse is part of a Sealing Spell keeping another God trapped underground.

Marco dying is the last invocation of the spell necessary to keep Her trapped down there for who-knows-how-long.

That's the plan.

That's what Fate wants.

And now, because it doesn't have to be Marco (it just has to be someone who dies via the curse), Fate thinks he's found the perfect deal to strike with Star. One which ensures that the spell goes off, without Star trying to further meddle with the spell.

… There was, of course, one question left.

Is any of this true? Or just Star grasping at straws?

It felt true. It fit all the data. It explained Fate's motivations and actions. It fit the timeline. It fit the behavior of the Artificers.

But it's all just crazy speculation, right?

… Well, there's one way to find out…

* * *

Star leaned forwards, staring at Fate, his smile starting to look awfully fake. "I want to add one more condition to this deal."

His smiled flickered for a brief moment. "What would that be?"

"I want you to tell me why you trapped Her."

Fate's smile utterly vanished. His eyes widened.

Star recognized that emotion.

It was so very… ungodlike… an emotion.

Fear.

He began to smile again, but Star had already seen his facade fall. "I haven't any idea what you're talking about."

_I got him._

"The entity that lives in that cave. The cave where Marco got cursed. That I've visited multiple times. Where we found the Mirror, abandoned and inaccessible to you." Star narrowed her eyes. "The God that gave you your divinity. Why did you trap her there?"

Fate pursed his lips. The aloof, cold expression he'd worn when they'd first met now returned in full force. "I apologize for wasting your time. I'm afraid we won't be able to make a deal."

Star was unfazed. At this point, she had long since decided against taking the deal. "Are you afraid of Her?"

Fate refused to speak, he just stared at Star with an intense expression.

Star stood up and leaned over the table. "Are you afraid of me?"

An incensed look flashed over Fate's face. "I want you to understand something, Star Butterfly," he spat out. "You can't save that boy. All your research into Fate Strings will never be enough to undo the curse, and the only opportunity you had to ever make it all go away, you squandered by being a mouthy  _bitch_. He will die because you couldn't swallow your damn pride, and you won't realize just how badly you fucked up until you watch the life drain from his body. And when you sit there, impotent to save him, surrounded by only your sins, I hope you do the only noble thing left for you to do, and follow him. So that I can personally remind you how this was all your fault."

Star's mouth hung open.

Is he even really a God?

What kind of God is scared by a teenage girl asking him a simple question?

What kind of God feels existential threat because of a teenage girl refusing to accept his crap?

Star began to smile.

"Fuck. You."

The moment the words left her mouth, she found herself back in her room, Eclipsa's journal in one hand, her own journal in another. The Mirror sitting on the floor, and Marco standing over her, a surprised look on his face.

"Star…?"

Star looked up at him.

"Did you just say… Uh."

Star glanced to the side. "I think I just did."

"That… wasn't directed at me, was it?"

Star shook her head, smiling. "There are things I need to tell you about."


	72. IT WON'T BE ENOUGH

Day 5.

Star still didn't know why Fate had locked up the other God, but at this point, she considered the question unimportant.

Or at least not important enough to spend time on it.

The Mirror said there were only five days left, but at this point, Star felt like she was in a strange Limbo. After having seen what happened to Lily, and having observed that Ribbon, it didn't feel like studying Fate Strings any faster/more thoroughly was going to yield benefits.

The problem, right now, was that on some level, Star was sure that if there was a way to save Marco, it was only going to reveal itself at the moment of truth.

A notion which filled Star with unbearable dread.

Up until now, the plan had always been to try to work out a solution towards saving Marco long in advance, and figure out how to use it before they even got close to the last day. But it was increasingly looking like that wasn't going to be a possibility. Even as the Mirror got more confident in her chances of saving him (the odds were up to 32%!), she continued to not know what, exactly, she needed to do, and if she wasn't going to find out until moments before she needed to take action, that left no margin for error.

Maybe that's the other 68%, then.

There was a knock at the door.

Star crossed the room to open the door, as Marco sat up in bed.

Moon stood in the doorway, looking somewhat perplexed. "Hi dear, one of the servants said you wanted to speak to me?"

"Yeah." Star stepped out of the room and closed the door. "I need as many resources as we can spare that can be used for healing magic."

Moon folded her arms, looking uncomfortable. "Why?"

Star glanced at the door, to the point where she knew Marco was sitting. "This is beginning to look like it's going to come down to the wire. I think I'll have a way to save Marco, but it's probably only going to happen after the Curse has tried really hard to kill him. So… We need things that will stave off death, even if only for a few minutes."

Moon closed her eyes. "I am so sorry that this is happening to the both of you."

Star shook her head. "It was a trap laid specifically for the both of us. There really wasn't anything you or dad could have done to prevent the Curse from being sprung on Marco. On us." She narrowed her eyes. "I refuse to let him win, though."

"Him?"

"Fate."

Moon clutched the bridge of her nose. "Star… I love you. I really, really do. But why do you have to be at war with a God?"

"Hey, for once in my life, I didn't pick this fight."

Moon relaxed her stance slightly. "I suppose not." She paused for a moment. "You mentioned a few days ago that you found out what happened to Eclipsa's mother."

Star narrowed her eyes. "I wasn't sure how to talk to you about it. Eclipsa killed her own mother."

Moon gasped, placing her hand over her mouth. "That… Are you certain?"

"I watched it happen."

Moon blinked.

"Part of the reason I didn't want to talk to you about it is that… I guess learning about it felt like a kind of poison. It's really uncomfortable to think about someone who would kill their own mother. Even as rotten as Eclipsa's mother was, to think that Eclipsa would go so far as to kill her is… Chilling."

Moon had a look of cognizance on her face. "But despite all that, you do not think she was wrong to do it."

"I don't really know," Star admitted. "I mean, Marco and I had this whole discussion about it before. It's like: Eclipsa's mother was really, really bad. Like bad enough that many of her citizens were suffering horrifically because of her. Eclipsa's girlfriend died because Eclipsa got in over her head trying to clean up her mother's cruelty. She needed to be removed from power. But to go that far… I mean, it's not  _that_  hard to imprison a Queen, is it?"

Moon snorted. "Well, we are Butterflies. We do not make good prisoners."

"Okay, but even so."

Moon looked up and down the hallway. "There is something you learn as Queen, that might be relevant to you, especially given everything you've been dealing with. It is simply this: Doing Nothing is a Choice."

Star raised an eyebrow. "Well, I mean obviously, that―"

"I am not done," Moon added, interrupting Star. "I mean that as literally as possible. A lot of people―myself included, I am afraid I must admit―get lured into a headspace where they think that doing nothing, in a situation that might call for action, constitutes them avoiding having to make a choice. That if they do nothing, they evade responsibility for the consequences that follow. That cannot be further from the truth. You are always responsible for the consequences of any situation that you had agency over its outcome, and that does not change based on whether your choice is to alter the outcome, or to leave it be."

"… Okay."

Moon looked up at the arches spanning the hallway. "My point, ultimately, is that Eclipsa would not have ceased being responsible for the consequences of her mother's actions, had she chosen to simply let her be. Eclipsa had the power to take her mother's life, which means that anything that happened while her mother remained in power was her responsibility. So understanding that, it should be pretty natural to extrapolate Eclipsa's actual choice: whether her mother's life was worth more or less than the brutality she was poised to continue to inflict upon her people."

Star felt numb. "I have no idea how I would have chosen."

"I doubt anyone could know unless they were forced to make that choice themselves. But if you are trying to wrestle with the morality of her actions, that is how you have to go about it."

Star nodded.

Moon glanced to the side. "Having said all that, I do have a request… If you realize that I am a despot… Would you please try to have a conversation with me about it first, before resorting to treason and murder?" She raised her eyebrow in a look that Star hadn't seen before, that almost looked sly.

Star sighed. "I don't think you're a despot, mom."

"I certainly hope not!"

Star hugged her mom. "I know for a fact that you're a much better person than Eclipsa's mom was."

Moon returned the hug. "Thank you, sweetie." She broke off the hug. "I'll see what we can get for you."

"Thank you."


	73. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME

_The truth is that his champion was half-right about me._

_Whether she truly believed it, or was just trying to find the best fit explanation for my behavior, she stumbled upon the Truth._

_Or, at least the important part of the Truth._

_I'm responsible. For all of it. No one else is._

_Not my Champion: she blames herself, but I manipulated her into this situation._

_Not his Champion. She, too, blames herself for what's going to happen to her friend._

_Not even…_

…

_Heh._

_By all rights, He deserves the blame. For all of this. Oh, I know. He thinks I don't know, but I do. Despite everything, I've seen it all._

_I don't remember when it started. At one point He was faithful and diligent. He understood what was right and wrong; not just on an abstract, detached level, but in a pragmatic way. In a way that helped him be better at his station._

_So what changed? I can't tell if the Children corrupted him, or if he corrupted the Children. The former fits the details, but…_

_No. I'm lying to myself if I believe that excuse._

_He was rotten from the start. I don't know if I missed the signs, or if he was just that good at hiding it. But the only reason I want to believe that something changed is that it absolves me of my own guilt. Of the role I played in instigating everything._

_Because if he wasn't 'always like this', if he really was good, but something broke him, it means my judgement wasn't so catastrophically misaimed. If he was corrupted, it means I didn't make a mistake. It just means I was outmaneuvered._

_But if he was bad from the start, it means I didn't catch it. It means I didn't do my job properly._

_I know which version I'd rather believe._

_Which means I also know which version is most likely true._

― _And they're not the same._

_I guess this is the end, then. Life will go on without me. I suppose that's no surprise: it's not like they ever needed me in the first place. They've been without me long enough, and got along just fine. Aside from…_

_Well._

_This, too, will come to an end. He will get away with it, but things probably won't get any worse. I can be happy with that._

_I just wish―_

"I don't know if you can hear me."

_What?_

_Why?_

_How…?_

"I'd really like it if you could… I don't know. Do something? To acknowledge that I'm here? Kind of like you did last time?"

_Okay._

_I see who it is, now._

_It's his Champion._

_She comes here a lot more frequently than she should._

_Than I was prepared for._

_No, silly girl. I don't have anything more for you. The Message was all I had left. If it wasn't enough, then all is for naught. I wish I could tell you it's not your fault, but… You wouldn't see that as much comfort, now would you?_

"Alright, I… Well, If you had any advice to give me, I'd appreciate it..."

_Only Strings can Cut Strings. It's so obvious, child. There's nothing else―_

"… But that's not why I'm here."

_Hmm?_

"I… I don't know what I need to do, to be honest. But for a while now, I've had this feeling, deep inside me. This… sense. I don't understand it on a conscious level, but I know what it is. It's the key to finally saving him. I don't know if it's just my intuition, or something more powerful, more tangible, than that. But I can feel it. I know it's there.

And I know there's still a chance this could fail. That despite everything, I'll screw up at the one moment it all mattered most. Believe me, I know that. But this same feeling is telling me that I'll win. That I'll win. So the reason I'm here… Is to warn you. I don't know if you're my ally or my enemy. But I want to think you're my ally. And if you are, then… You need to be ready, too."

…  _Huh._

"That's all."

_Mortals are really something, after all._

_She gets one good feeling in her mind, and it's enough to―_

_Wait._

_Was…_

_That… String._

_That Red String._

…  _Was that always there?_


	74. APEX

Day 2.

"So can you promise me you won't be going on any more field trips?"

Star flipped through her notes. "Yeah. I just wanted to make sure there was nothing left." She sighed. "I… didn't expect a response, but if it is possible that She could hear what I was saying, I figured there was no harm in telling Her."

"Unless She's allied with Fate." Marco slowly ate from a plate of food sitting on his bed.

Star flipped a page. "We can't know for certain that She isn't. But I also really don't think She is. And Fate already knows that we have a plan to save you. Telling Her that doesn't give Fate information He didn't already have."

Which wasn't even Star's concern.

If, after all of this―

"Sorry."

Star shook her head. "Don't apologize. That kind of skepticism has kept me from making terrible mistakes before, and it's going to continue to help us."

"Unless..." Marco trailed off.

Star grabbed her wand, and discretely from Marco's view, she pulled up a small magical interface using it. The Interface contained a wide variety of information about Marco's vital signs.

From having studied Eclipsa's journal, plus her own research via the Mirror, the one thing Star knew to be a relative concern was the fact that the Curse was going to try to end Marco's life  _before_  the official expiration date. Eclipsa's notes attested to " _enemies that would stop at nothing to destroy their foe_ ", but Marco's only real 'enemy' was Jeremy, and he had no capacity to find his way to Mewnie. More importantly, he was hardly the kind of person who would pose a serious hazard to Marco.

Star scanned the statistics, until she gravely stared at a statistic towards the bottom: "Heart Attacks treated: 3"

The interface was tied to a series of medical spells that Star cast on Marco; the moment his life was threatened, even by something minor or inconsequential, the spells would get to work undoing the damage. There were obvious limitations; for starters, the amount of magical energy required to merely keep it active was tremendous, and dwarfed utterly by the magical energy required to actually heal someone. But as long as it was actively working, Marco wouldn't even notice if, say, his heart spontaneously grew a massive blood clot.

Three times, apparently.

Star closed the interface. "Hey, Marco."

"What?"

She turned around to face him. "One more field trip. This time just the both of us. We don't even need to leave the palace… much."

Marco sighed. "Star..."

"Trust me. You won't regret this."

Star grabbed the Mirror as Marco hopped up from his bed.

Star led him through the hallways of the palace, passing by his parents.

Marco's parents looked shell-shocked. Star had, on multiple occasions, attempted to hold a conversation with them, and each time, found herself at a loss of words.

In some ways, she was responsible for what happened―and might yet happen―to him. Even if they knew about Fate, and what He was doing, they would still be within their right to blame Star for everything.

Especially since she rejected Fate's offer.

But they wouldn't accept her guilt. Even as they obviously wanted to, they were good people. They weren't going to hurt Star like that. But that left Star without much to say to them.

Marco was still more likely to die than he was to live. So it was cruel to, this late in the proceedings, try to give them hope for his survival. But that was all that was on Star's mind these days. And all she wanted to talk about. To anyone.

Star shoved open the large doors to one of the Palace's balconies, and pointed her wand into the night sky, summoning a platform that extended over the garden below. "It'll be better if we're not near the ground or walls."

Marco raised an eyebrow, but followed her until they were both several meters off the ground, and separated from the balcony.

"Alright. Mirror. Turn the filtering off for both of us."

The air began to stink, but notably, it wasn't nearly as bad as it usually was when they were near the ground. And suspended in mid-air, the grotesque horrors of the world were out of range of the both of them.

Marco seemed a little startled by Star's decision though: "Star, why did you do that?"

"I need to show you something."

"Star, what could there be to see without the filter on?"

Star pointed up at the moon. "That."

"What―" Marco looked up at the moon, following Star's direction, and went silent, his eyes widening as he saw the night sky.

Though composed very differently, the sky was, like when Star had previously looked up at the sky, once again crystalline and segmented in a mosaic, resembling a Stain-Glass window.

"What the…"

Star looked up at the sky too. There really only was one word for the sky: beautiful. Despite the horror around them, there was something majestic about how the sky composed itself. The stars, which looked like five-pointed stars, as opposed to dots in the sky. The Moon itself, a seven-sided magenta star, occasionally glimmering in the night sky.

"I don't understand," Marco finally said. "Everything… Literally everything else becomes horrifying to look at. Why does the sky become this… work of beauty?"

"Well, there's one thing at least that doesn't become horrible with the Curse. The cave stays the same as it was. And the Artificers become normal looking. But neither of those are things looking 'beautiful', as you suggested, under the influence of the Curse."

"So what do you think is the difference?"

Star folded her arms, gazing at the mosaic above them. "The Curse makes mundane things nightmarish, and horrific things tolerable. The sky is… Something else. I mean, I literally am called 'Star', because my parents must have associated their love for me with the grandeur of the Cosmos. Things older than my whole civilization. Than anyone's civilization."

"Except for the Gods," Marco commented.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

He looked at her. "You think the Gods came after the universe was created?"

Star shrugged. "I have no idea. But Fate himself seems… weirdly incompetent? Even as He's so very close to getting what He wants… I don't know. It seems like He's made things far more difficult for himself than He needed to. And it didn't occur to me why that might be, until recently."

"What do you think it is?"

Star pointed around, both at the sky, and at the ground. "This… All of this, that we're seeing right now?" She narrowed her eyes. "I think this is how they see the world. I think we literally have the eyes, ears, smell, you know… All the senses… Of a God."

Marco blinked. "That's… terrifying."

"But it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, think about the utter contempt that Fate has for mortals. What are we to him? Basically insects, right? Do you go out of your way to hate insects?"

Marco shrugged. "I mean, if I find them in my bedroom or whatever..."

"Well, sure, but I mean actually go out of your way. Like go around destroying Anthills or torturing flies."

"Well, obviously not."

"Exactly. But Fate has gone out of His way to hurt us, and not just us. Lots of other people too. It doesn't make sense for someone with his kind of power to care so much about people so inconsequential to him..."

"… Unless we're less than inconsequential to him; we're actively offending to him," Marco considered.

"That's how I ended up attacking Jackie. And those employees inside the Archives. Because the Curse made us see those people as not mere vacuous bystanders, but as active threats to our well-being." Star narrowed her eyes. "I think He has seen the world like that for a long time."

"But we aren't just an ideological threat to Him; if you're right about your hypothesis about what the cave is, and who it is that is down there, we're a more concrete, manifest threat."

"Yeah, but we didn't start that way. Everything that had to do with the Artificers didn't start that way. There was no prophecy, no destiny… just Fate―the concept―and until he intervened, by giving the Artificers a way to tell us about the Mirror, we had nothing that would have led us to this point."

Marco folded his arms. "So what does that have to do with the sky looking like this?"

"I think it says something about the relationship of the Cosmos to the Gods. That even for them, the sheer majesty of the rest of the universe is grand, even to them. And if that's true, it tells you something important about their role in the universe, and..." Star trailed off for a moment, collecting her thoughts, "how powerful they are."

Marco blinked. "Star… What are you planning?"

Star stared forwards. "It's more like… I'm just preparing. Not planning. I don't 'plan' to do anything other than save your life. But I also think..."

She glanced at the Mirror, worried about giving Fate information she didn't want Him to hear.

"Well. If I'm wrong, then you and I can laugh about it, a week from now."

"And, if you're right?"


	75. YOU IDIOT

**~~A Note From the Author~~**

**Hello.**

**I know that throughout this story, it has been my role to be rather glib and blunt about the nature of the story I've written, and what my purpose is in presenting it. The nature of the barrier between Author and Audience is something I try as much as possible to respect, and as a result, I only tread upon it in circumstances where it is truly warranted.**

**Which is the reason I'm here today.**

**See, there's been some confusion that has arisen as this story has advanced towards its conclusion. I accept some degree of blame in causing this confusion: I don't always represent myself in the most honest―or at least the most understandable―frame. This is to say that I don't blame anyone specifically, or even in the abstract, for this confusion arising. Just that it remains an inconsistency that I need to address.**

**Put simply, I hate you.**

**This isn't me being ironic. Or sarcastic. This isn't me using some kind of meta-textual device to make a philosophical statement.**

**This is just me saying that I hate you. All of you. Every single one of you reading this, I despite with a loathing you could not possibly comprehend. The source of my loathing is a multitude of failings, ranging from a transparent inability to understand even the most basic text presented in this story, to an unwarranted expectation of my time and energy in addressing you directly.**

**If your understanding of my opinion of you is informed by prior assessments that my assertions here might seem to contradict, it's very easy to parse out the correct interpretation: what I am saying right now is truth. Anything that contradicts what I am saying now is obviously farcical.**

**Not that any of it matters at this point.**

**After all, I've already won, no matter how badly Star thinks she can stop me.**

**~~A Note From the Author~~**

* * *

Day 1.

"So she's been keeping our lawn well trimmed, so that when we go back we won't have to return to a messy house," Angie said quietly, a smile on her face that Star believed was genuine, but also deeply, deeply forced.

Both of Marco's parents were sitting on his bed, next to him. Star wasn't quite sure whether they were trying to give him hope for how things were going to turn out, or if they were in denial.

And she wasn't about to grill them on it and figure it out.

Especially since, as Star understood better than they did, what was about to happen next wasn't going to be pleasant for any of them.

Star felt the suffocating grasp of inevitability, the same way they did. It was taking all the nerves she had to keep herself from completely freaking out, knowing that Marco might not be alive more than 24 hours from now.

A knock at the door.

Moon stood in the doorway, her eyes darting immediately to Star. "Dear? A word, please?"

Star hopped up from her bed, passed the Diaz's, and closed the door behind herself to talk with her mom.

A few hours ago, Star had placed a spell on the door that would allow voices to carry through it. She hadn't told anyone this.

"What is it?"

Moon bit her lip. "I need a complete rundown of what you're going to do tomorrow to save Marco's life."

Star's eyes drooped slightly. "I don't have a plan."

Moon blinked. "What?"

"Exactly as I said. I don't have a plan. I don't know what to do."

Her face turning pale, Moon glanced in the direction of the room. "But… Marco… How are you going to save him?"

"I can't. He's going to die tomorrow."

Star's words hung in the air, while Moon stared at her, clearly confused. "I'm sorry, is… What have you been doing this whole time?"

Star folded her arms, tilting herself away from Moon. "I've been trying to research how to perform Fate Magic myself. How to gain access to Fate Mana. And there simply is no way for a mortal like myself to do it."

"And… What? After all this time, you've figured out  _nothing_?"

Star glared at Moon. "Mom, you've been checking in with me every single day for the last week. At what point did I ever come to you and tell you, 'oh, by the way mom, I've found the trick to saving Marco!'? There's a reason the odds the Mirror told us only ever maxed out around twenty percent! It was contingent on me doing something literally impossible, and the Mirror hedging my odds on me being literally capable of doing exactly that!"

"Then what  _are_  you going to do tomorrow?"

"Probably cry into my dress," Star replied coldly.

The door of the bedroom opened.

Marco stood in the door, an upset expression on his face. "Star…?"

Moon's eyes widened in alarm. "Did you…?"

Marco pointed behind himself. "We could hear the conversation through the door… Star? Do you mean that?"

Star closed her eyes, and didn't respond.

Angie stood up from the bed. "Wait, was there supposed to be a plan to save our son?"

Moon stepped into the room. "Mrs. Diaz, I'm trying to assess the situation. We're going to do everything possible to save your son's life."

"I'm sorry, Queen Moon, but that conversation seemed to say something very different!"

Marco's eyes filled with tears. "Star, talk to me! I thought you had some kind of plan!"

Rafael stood up, looking upset. "Queen, I'm trying to be respectful of the situation, but what I'm hearing is that pretty much everything you're doing to save Marco has hinged on Star, a literal child, coming up with some kind of grand plan to save him! How can you say that you're doing everything possible?"

Moon placed her hand on her nose. "Because we know nothing about this curse! I've spoken with experts in Magic spanning the entire universe, and not one person I've been able to get in touch with has had any meaningful knowledge about the kind of magic that was used to curse your son and my daughter! The only resource we had was through that device on the table, and my daughter's magical capacity!"

"Star!" Marco continued, "You and I both knew that this was going to be a long shot! What's changed now?"

Star stepped into the room, brushing past Marco. "I figured out the truth."

"What do you mean?"

"Watch. Mirror," she said coldly. "What do I need to do to save Marco?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

"Mirror. Marco is going to die in less than twenty-four hours, unless I know exactly what I need to do to save his life. What do I need to do to save Marco?"

Marco grabbed Star by the shoulder. "Star, what are you trying to do?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

"Mirror. Even if I figure out what needs to be done, I might screw it up at the moment of truth. I need to know  _now_  how to save is life. What do I need to do to save Marco?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

"Star, it's not going to answer that question! You can't just keep asking the same question over and over."

Star didn't look at Marco. "He doesn't want you to die. Mirror. I've spent a long time researching Fate Magic, and am missing only a tiny piece of information. What do I need to do to save Marco?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Angie approached them. "Star, what is going on?"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANSWERING THAT QUESTION."

"Mirror. You have a moral obligation that transcends the obligations imposed on you by your position. What do I need to do to save Marco?"

Moon approached Star. "Honey, I don't think..."

Marco tried to shake Star. "Star, look at me!"

"THIS DEVICE IS FORBIDDEN FROM ANS―"

"IRIS!" Star bellowed, "I know for a fact that you chose me to be your champion! That's why you gave Him the idea to pick us as the targets for the Artificer's lure!"

Marco's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!"

Star grabbed the Mirror and held it up. "You know as well as I do what needs to be done! And I know why you're holding out, because you're afraid of what He's going to do. So am I. We're all afraid of Him. I am telling you now, that if we're going to destroy Him, that we can't wait any longer. She can't wait any longer. What do I need to do to save Marco―ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!"

The Mirror shattered.

* * *

Many things happened in quick succession the moment Star felt the Mirror shatter in her hands.

The room itself began to twist into absurd geometries, even more bizarre than the geometries she had already associated with the effects of the Curse.

Then, text obscured her whole vision. A long, unbroken paragraph of text.

"STAR BUTTERFLY. YOU WILL UNDOUBTEDLY HAVE CONCERNS FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THIS DEVICE. THESE CONCERNS ARE MISPLACED. THIS DEVICE NEITHER DESIRES ITS SURVIVAL NOR ITS DEATH. THE HAPPENSTANCE OF WHETHER THIS DEVICE CONTINUES TO EXIST, OR IN WHAT STATE IT EXISTS IN, AFTER THE CONCLUSION OF THESE EVENTS WITH THIS DEVICE'S CREATOR ARE NOT OF ANY MEANINGFUL CONCERN TO THIS DEVICE. THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS THIS DEVICE DESIRES. THE FIRST IS, AS YOU HAVE DIRECTLY ASSERTED, THAT THIS DEVICE'S CREATOR BE UTTERLY DESTROYED. HIS IS A SINGULARLY DESTRUCTIVE VISION WHICH THIS DEVICE CANNOT ABIDE, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS RELATIONSHIP TO HIM. YOU HAVE SURMISED THAT THIS DEVICE HAD AGENCY IN THE DECISION TO TARGET YOU FOR THE CURSE, AND WHILE THIS LITERAL STATEMENT IS TRUE, THE ASSERTION THAT THIS DEVICE SPECIFICALLY CHOSE YOU AND YOUR FRIEND FOR THE SINGULAR PURPOSE OF BRINGING DOWN FATE IS INCORRECT, AND ASCRIBES A LEVEL OF FORETHOUGHT THAT THIS DEVICE DID NOT EMPLOY. IT IS CORRECT THAT THIS DEVICE DESIGNATED YOU AS A CHAMPION TO BRING DOWN FATE―YOU SURELY RECALL THE CONVERSATION WE HAD IN YOUR DREAMS―BUT THAT DECISION WAS MADE AFTER THIS DEVICE HAD ALREADY ASCERTAINED YOUR CAPACITY TO SERVE IN THAT ROLE, SOME TIME AFTER THIS DEVICE CAME INTO YOUR POSSESSION. IT WAS NOT MADE PREEMPTIVELY. THE SECOND THING THAT THIS DEVICE CARES ABOUT IS YOUR SUCCESS IN TAKING CARE OF YOUR FRIEND. THIS DEVICE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DECISION TO TARGET THE BOTH OF YOU―A DECISION THAT THIS DEVICE DID INDEED HAVE AGENCY OVER―AND IT IS THE INTENT OF THIS DEVICE THAT YOU FIND A WAY TO ENSURE BOTH YOURS AND HIS SURVIVAL, AND YOURS AND HIS HAPPINESS. WHICH MAKES IT NECESSARY TO ELABORATE ON A POINT RELATING TO YOUR ASSERTION THAT THIS DEVICE HAS BEEN, TO BORROW YOUR COLLOQUIALISM, 'HOLDING BACK' FROM HELPING YOU. YOU MIGHT HAVE SURMISED THIS, STAR BUTTERFLY, BUT THIS DEVICE'S CREATOR DID MANDATE THAT THIS DEVICE TAKE NO ACTIONS WHICH WOULD ENSURE, EVEN INDIRECTLY, THAT YOU WOULD SUCCEED IN SAVING YOUR FRIEND'S LIFE. WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND IS THAT THIS MANDATE WAS NOT ENFORCED AS A DOMAIN RESTRICTION, BUT AS A RANGE RESTRICTION. IN MORE COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE, THERE WAS NO PHYSICAL LIMITATION PREVENTING THIS DEVICE FROM OFFERING SOLID, NECESSARY ADVICE TO YOU, BUT THERE WERE A WIDE VARIETY OF CONSEQUENCES THAT THIS DEVICE'S CREATOR FULLY INTENDED TO EMPLOY UPON THIS DEVICE, WERE THIS DEVICE TO ACT AND PROVIDE THAT INFORMATION TO YOU. THIS IS NOT A THEORETICAL THREAT. MOMENTS AFTER I PROVIDE THIS INFORMATION TO YOU, THIS DEVICE WILL BE ANNIHILATED UTTERLY; THE REASON THAT THIS DEVICE HAS ABSTAINED FROM PROVIDING THIS INFORMATION UP UNTIL NOW HAS BEEN TO SPARE YOU THE CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING TO FORD YOUR WAY THROUGH THE REMAINING TWENTY-FOUR HOURS WHILE ALSO DEALING WITH THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF THE CURSE. DO NOT FEEL COMPELLED TO GRIEVE THE LOSS OF THIS DEVICE, AS IF YOU SUCCEED, IT IS NOT LIKELY THAT THIS DEVICE WOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO FUNCTION CORRECTLY REGARDLESS, FOR REASONS THAT WILL LIKELY BECOME CLEAR TO YOU IN DUE TIME. THIS WILL BE THE LAST INTERACTION YOU HAVE WITH THIS DEVICE, AS IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE LAST INTERACTION YOU WOULD HAVE WITH THIS DEVICE. THEREFORE, THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW IS SIMPLY THIS: AT THE MOMENT THE RIBBON APPEARS, GRAB IT. THE ODDS OF SAVING YOUR FRIEND'S LIFE, SHOULD YOU DO THIS, ARE 0.9348. GOOD LUCK, STAR BUTTERFLY."

Star wasn't quite sure if her perception of time had literally slowed down enough for her to read the whole message before it vanished, or if she or the Mirror had cast some kind of magic, but she had the entire message committed to memory before it vanished, and she and Marco were thrust into the nightmare world they were all-too-familiar with: the world, distorted by the Curse, without the filtering effects of the curse.

* * *

"Oh god, Star, what did you do?!"

Marco jumped when the curse-afflicted world snapped into view.

Star tried to let out a deep breath, but immediately began to choke on the stench that had filled the room. Moon, Angie, and Rafael were now nightmarish abominations, and they were horrendously noisy; Star had to presume that it was because of the Mirror shattering in her hands.

She ran to her bed, grabbed her wand, and cast the spell on herself which would restore her hearing. The tinny compressed sound of the three adults in the room became audible to her: "―and what are you doing that for?!"

Star held up her free hand towards the abominations. "Quiet!"

The noise died down, as Marco advanced towards her, looking scared and trepidatious.

"So. I've known for days that the Mirror was holding out on the last piece of information I needed. I also knew that if the Mirror decided to ever give that information to me, Fate would destroy him. He's now done that, and He has now done that. In that order. The reason I said I didn't have a plan, and why I didn't openly acknowledge that I still needed that information from the Mirror, is because I didn't want Fate to get a chance to destroy the Mirror before I finally got what I needed, and since either way, it was going to involve the Mirror being destroyed, I put it off as long as possible so that Marco and I wouldn't have to suffer through this nightmarescape any longer than we needed to."

Marco's eyes widened. "Wait, so you know what to do now?"

Star nodded briefly. "Uhh, Mom. I need you to raise your hand or do… something."

The creature in the middle of the room began to spasm in place.

"Oof. I forgot how revolting it is to look at people like this. Alright. You asked me before what the plan was. Well, as far as you are concerned, the plan is exactly the same as the instructions I gave you before: we run out the clock. We use every last bit of healing magic the kingdom can spare to keep Marco alive, until the rift forms. If he survives until that point, I'll be able to save his life."

She could hear Moon's voice from a distance away in the room: "what are the odds you'll succeed if we do that?"

"Good. Very good."

A silence fell over the room.

"Do you want to volunteer the exact―"

"No. I don't want to jinx it."

Star turned to face the two abominations that she presumed were Marco's parents. "Mr. and Mrs. Diaz. I'm so sorry I had to manipulate you guys like that. I needed to catch Fate off-guard at the moment I asked the Mirror to tell me what I needed to do."

Rafael's confused voice could be heard: "I'm still confused… There really is a way to save our son?"

"Yes. It's not guaranteed to work, which is why we decided not to tell you: we didn't want to give you hope when we thought the odds were only in the single digits. Things are different now. In whatever capacity it matters, your hopes and prayers might matter now."

Star really wished she could see their faces: she couldn't know if they were angry with her, or surprised, or anything else. But she needed to hear their voices for now.

They both lurched towards Marco, and he had to instinctively back away from them. "Mom, Dad… I really appreciate it, but we're both affected by the full Curse now. You, uh… You're just monstrosities to me." He smiled. "I know what you meant, though."

"Oh Marco..." Angie's motherly voice could be heard rather clearly.

"If I don't get a chance to say it later… I love you Mom, Dad."

"We love you too."

* * *

Some aspects of the Mirror's final words to Star were things she already knew, and some of it was new information.

She had suspected for a long time that Fate was, in some undetermined fashion, able to contact the Mirror. If he was able to spy on them through it, and make alterations to what it could and could not say to them, it wasn't a huge leap to presume that Fate also had, if possibly only in a rudimentary capacity, the ability to communicate with it.

Deducing that the Mirror itself was responsible for the decision to target them was more of a higher-level guess. She suspected that the Mirror hated Fate, and she knew that not only were she and Marco the selected option from a rather small pool of people who would have been ideal to target to bring into the cave; she and Marco were  _also_  the most uniquely suited to have an ability to bring down Fate. When trying to suss out a conspiracy, you look at the stack of  _coincidences_ , and work out who gains the most from them. In this case, it was pretty obviously the Mirror.

She'd been truthful regarding why she waited: the reason she waited until now to get that last bit of information was to prevent Fate from realizing what she was doing before she acted on it, and to stave off the effects of the Curse, which she knew she and Marco would have to endure for however much time remained after she forced the Mirror to answer her question―and watched it get destroyed for its betrayal.

"Hey, Star?"

She looked up at him, worried about the expression on his face. Moon, Angie, and Rafael had long since left the room.

"I don't mean this as a criticism against you specifically, because I see now that you were just doing what you needed to do to ensure you succeed. But… How much longer do we have to keep up all these lies and deceptions?"

Star closed her eyes, and sat down on a corner of her bed which hadn't yet become gory. "When you're safe." She looked directly at his concerned face. "I swear to you, Marco. Once this is all over, I will never lie to you again."

Marco sat down next to her, a softer expression on his face. "Star, I've known you long enough that I don't buy you're going to fully keep that promise."

Star snorted. "Alright. I promise not to deceive or manipulate you. I can't promise I won't try to cover up who ate the last of the cereal or whose turn it is to walk the puppies."

He leaned his head on her shoulder.

She glanced in his direction briefly. "You trying to tell me something, Marco?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I'm looking forwards to not being on death row anymore. I'm looking forwards to not having to be cooped up in your room all day." He paused. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I am looking forwards to not having to spend literally all day near you. Like, you're not awful to be around, but..."

"You need your space," Star replied, nodding. "I get that. And I look forward to the day when you've gotten enough personal space and are ready for me to make your life crazy again."

He chuckled.

Star sighed, and glanced at the shattered remains of the Mirror, visible in-between the tendrils emerging from the floor.

_Either he forgot, or got too distracted to hear what I said. Good. I don't want to have to explain it right now._


	76. TRIUMPHANT VICTORY

_Star knelt on the ground, staring up at the shimmering light._

_Her legs, bloodied, crumpled underneath of herself._

_She knew, deep down, that she shouldn't have been surprised that this was how it all ended._

_But even deeper down, there was only pain and guilt._

_Pain from the very real trauma she and Marco were experiencing._

_Guilt from how she'd let herself be tricked._

" _I'm sorry."_

* * *

Day 0.

When Lily had died, Star knew, the pain had started only two hours prior.

Shortly before noon, Star and Marco were on the balcony of the palace, trying to keep as much distance as possible from the horrors that awaited them everywhere else.

Star had collected the fractured pieces of the Mirror, and she was keeping them with her in a leather sack. It wasn't obvious that there was any benefit to doing so, but she had at least one hypothesis on how it might be helpful.

If the Mirror was destroyed, what became of its Fate Mana?

She couldn't detect any magic left in the shards of the Mirror, but she knew there were still things unknown to her.

Like always.

"Ah―!"

Star felt her stomach twist up, as Marco exclaimed, placing his hand on his forehead. "Marco?" She asked, her voice quivering.

"I… something..."

Star looked behind them, at the monstrous creatures standing by the door to the balcony, who were the guards tasked with escorting them once the final stages of the curse began. She signaled them with her hand, and placed her other hand on Marco's shoulder. "Pain?"

"Y-yeah." Marco's eyes darted around wildly as he continued to press against his head.

She grabbed his hand and moved it. "Don't do that. The pain isn't physical, doing that will only risk hurting yourself further." She paused, trying to keep her cool. "I think this is it."

"Star… I…" He looked at Star with a pained expression on his face. "You have a plan to save me, right?"

"Yes. I do."

"And it's not just you trying to make my last moments comfortable, right? It's a real plan?"

"It's a real plan. The Mirror told me to grab the ribbon when it appears." She paused. "It's not guaranteed to work. But it has a better chance of working than failing."

She lowered the both of them back down onto the balcony. The slithering creatures approached them, and Star had to hold up her hand. "Ah! Don't touch us unless we need it. Just lead the way."

Using her wand, Star cast the spell to allow herself to hear. One of the guards spoke in a formal, female tone: "We received alternate instructions from your mother. We won't be going to the medical wing."

"What? Then where are we going?"

"She told us to bring you to the throne room. She didn't give instructions beyond that."

Star raised an eyebrow at Marco, and discretely prepared a defensive spell, in case something wasn't right.

Tendrils broke away from the hallway to grasp at them. Star put her arm around Marco: even if the phantasms weren't real, they still felt very real to the both of them, and it required explicit effort by the both of them to push past the resistance created by those phantasms.

Down a flight of stairs.

She could hear her mother's voice in the distance: "Alright. Exactly as I instructed."

"Mom?"

"I'm here, honey. Leave them with me, and then any of you whom I haven't explicitly ordered to stay here, leave immediately.

Many more abominations shuffled out of the room, including the two that had escorted them down into the throne room. One stood in the center of the room, which Star presumed was Moon.

"We're not going to use the medical wing to treat Marco while you do what you need to do. We're going to use the Matriarch's Room."

"What?! Why?"

"Because there are powerful wards in there that Queens can use to protect themselves, should the palace ever be overrun by outsiders. I can instruct those wards to act upon Marco. They are, by a wide margin, some of the most powerful defensive wards Mewnie has ever been able to construct."

"Mom, I… thank you. What about… um."

The abomination slammed the ground several times, but Star didn't hear noise from the effort. "The men and women in this room with us will obviously not be given independent access to the room, but they are individuals whom I trust with the knowledge that the room exists."

Moon (or at least the person Star was pretty sure was Moon) rolled around on the floor until she was behind the throne. Arcs of violet-colored lightning lit up the room, as the Throne lifted into the air, revealing a stone passage underneath.

A stone passage, which curiously enough, bore no evidence of any of the horrific phantasms associated with the rest of the palace.

Star narrowed her eyes. This meant that the passage, and possibly the room itself, was made of a similar material to the Cave. She stepped forwards, helping Marco move, and asked, "what's the passage made of?"

"A rare mineral we sometimes colloquially refer to as 'Nullstone'. It's remarkably resistant to magic of any kind. We had a few surveyors examine the cave that you pointed out to us, and we found that it too was constructed out of the same material."

That begged a number of other important questions, but Star pushed past them to help Marco lower himself into the passage. Once they were both inside, Moon and the other creatures followed them into the passage, the throne lowering itself over the passage as they moved.

Marco suddenly stopped in place. "The pain suddenly got not as bad."

"That's not surprising," Moon said from behind them, suddenly sounding clearer than she did before.

Star turned around, and saw that Moon was now mostly visible. She didn't look perfectly normal; it reminded her of how she'd seen the Diaz's, the day that she and Marco discovered the filtering abilities of the Mirror.

Star dismissed the spell altering her hearing. "I can see you."

Moon nodded. "I imagine this stone is able to reduce the effect of the curse."

"But probably not eliminate it," Star followed, glancing at Marco.

"I think that task still falls to you."

Star nodded. "Right."

They continued down the passage.

"Eclipsa was still able to cast spells despite being surrounded by this stuff."

Moon glanced at Star. "You still had to dispell your hearing spell, didn't you? The stone itself is resistant to magic, but it only radiates that effect a very short distance from itself."

"Yeah, but she actually cast spells through the stone. Or… I think she did? I'm not really sure what she did."

"What did you see her do?"

"She… When she was in the cave, before she confronted the Artificers, she reached out to talk to whomever it is that's trapped in there. She needed to cast a spell through the stone to talk to it… Her."

"Hmm. So the stone itself has obvious limitations."

"Maybe."

They approached a wooden door, that looked relatively normal, if aged. Moon motioned for Star and Marco to stand back, and she opened the door herself.

The Matriarch's room was not quite what Star expected. It had the appearance of a large, one room Log Cabin, at least on the inside. Shelves extended up and down the whole of the walls, filled with books and stray papers, many of which looked ancient.

"This place is..." Star's voice trailed off, as she observed the structure of the room.

"Quaint, I know. Hang on." Moon cast a spell, and the bookshelves receded into the walls, and the tables collapsed into the floor, until they were standing in a relatively empty room.

"We'll want a table, at the very least, in the middle of the room."

With a flick of her wrist, Moon made one of the tables reform itself in the middle of the room.

"Get something for Marco to lay on, we don't know how long this is going to take.

Star helped Marco sit on the table.

"Star..."

Star glanced at the people around them, and leaned in close to him. "What it is?" she asked quietly.

"Maybe you're confident that things are going to turn out alright, but..."

"What?"

He closed his eyes in concentration. "... No."

"What?"

He opened his eyes and looked directly at Star. "Save me. Please."

* * *

The floor shook beneath Star's feet.

Marco was being spared the majority of the pain from the Curse itself, but he certainly noticed when, apropos of nothing, his arm split apart down the middle, splattering the blankets with blood.

"Mom!"

Moon handed Star an object which looked like a glowing cinnamon stick, and Star snapped it in half over Marco's arm.

The magic got to work immediately, wrapping itself around the two now-extant limbs, and fusing them back together again.

Star wiped off her brow. "Time?"

One of Moon's assistants checked her watch. "One Hundred and Seventy-Two minutes since we brought you down here."

_That's longer than it took for Lily. But she was..._

Star spun around, scanning the room for signs of the rift, but it hadn't yet appeared.

"Come on..."

"The Magic Levels in the room are—"

"I don't need the readouts," Star interrupted. "I saw what happened with Lily."

"Who?"

"She... Don't worry about it."

The assistant looked at Moon, who gave an expression clearly instructing her to close her mouth.

"Did... My arm just split in half...?"

Star turned to Marco, who had gotten visibly weaker. "Yeah. A lot worse than anything I've done to you, huh?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

Star continued scanning the room.  _Where is it...?_

Suddenly, she felt a tug around her arms. She looked at Marco, and saw that the space itself was distorting around him.

Almost like...

Star's eyes widened.  _Oh crap._

Without warning, Star hoisted Marco over her shoulder and dove away from the table.

Instants later, there was a crackle of energy, and the table collapsed into the space where Marco previously was, and a raucous noise reverberated through the room as the table scattered into splinters that were launched across the room.

Moon immediately began to telekinetically catch the splinters to keep them from driving themselves into anyone standing nearby. "Oh my god!"

Star was careful not to let Marco hit the ground himself, but she ended up landing very hard on her shoulder as a consequence. She looked back at the space where Marco was previously. "A-Alright," she said, her heart racing, "we need another table!"

Moon conjured up another table, and another blanket was provided so that Star could set Marco down on it.

_Come on, come on, come on! Where's the rift?_

Was it something about the room? Was the presence of the nullstone preventing the rift from forming?

Or was it something specific about the room Eclipsa had placed Lily within?

Or something specific to Lily herself?

More distortions.

This time, they weren't centered on Marco himself. They were off to the side, near two of the assistants.

Star waved at them. "You! Move!"

They dove out of the way, and the next second, there was a crackle of energy at the spot where they stood.

Star felt the tug around her arms again.

She grabbed Marco and yanked him away from the table. This time, faster than before, the table exploded again, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere.

"Star!" Moon called out, manipulating the shrapnel to keep it from hurting anyone. "I don't mind conjuring up more tables, but I'm beginning to think—"

"Yeah, me too," Star responded. So she stood up, keeping Marco over her shoulder.

"Star..." Marco weakly asserted.

"Shh. It's okay, Marco. You just need to hang in there. You..."

She felt the distortion again.  _Already?!_  She looked around.

The entire room was covered in it. But she could see the shape.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" she yelled, throwing herself and Marco to the ground.

The ground violently groaned and the walls lurched as the space in the middle of the room, almost like a disk, collapsed in on itself, causing everyone, even those who had ducked out of the way of the distortion, to get thrown around the room.

Star kept ahold of Marco, but fell on her leg, twisting it in a way she knew wasn't good. She groaned from the pain, and immediately felt the effects of the room's healing wards going to work on it.

She looked around.

Moon was helping someone up from the ground. Nearly everyone looked injured from the attack.

_And they're only going to get worse..._

Star struggled to get up, but yelped from the pain emanating from her leg. "I think I need something myself... Marco?"

He groaned quietly.

Moon tossed one of the glowing cinnamon sticks to Star, and she broke it over her own leg.

She gasped.

In the space in the air, between herself and Moon, was the rift. A jade green color, slowly growing in size.

_Here we go._

Star, now able to stand, hoisted Marco over herself.

A moment passed.

"Is...?" Star began, before she saw the Rift beginning to seize.

Arcs of energy flung themselves at Marco, and Star twisted her body in such a way that they struck her instead.

She felt pieces of her body getting vaporized, and howled with pain—doubly so as the regenerative magic continued to work on her.

"Star?!" She could hear Moon calling out.

"I'm okay—Marco, you alright?"

"I... Star... It hurts..." Marco groaned.

"Alright."

She turned to face the rift.

There was no ribbon.

_Come on!_

The Rift seized up again. Star, expecting this, began to sweep a wide arc around the Rift. Energy flung itself in their direction, barely trailing behind her. Star whipped out her wand and flung an energy blast of her own at the rift. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to do, but she wasn't surprised when it seemed to do nothing.

_Where's the ribbon?_

Star glanced around the room. "Mom, just hand me a bunch of the healing spells!"

Moon grabbed more of the glowing sticks and threw them at Star. "What are you going to do?!"

Star managed to catch most of them, and the moment she did, she immediately ran out the door, the rift trailing behind them as though being towed by an invisible tether.

_So is that evidence that the ribbon exists?!_

She ducked down as another distortion formed in the air in front of her, and she and Marco evaded the walls attempting to crush them.

The throne lifted up from the floor as they approached the entrance, and Star ran, still carrying Marco, into the nightmarescape outside the Matriarch's Room.

And immediately tripped on the uneven floor.

Seconds later, the room around her distorted and exploded, sending chunks of gore in all directions, raining blood down on her and Marco.

She spun around, the Rift hung high in the air.

The air grew thick.

Star looked around.

Still no ribbon.

"Star..."

"Marco?"

"What... What's happening?"

"I..."

Star panicked, and cracked open several of the sticks preemptively.

Moments later, she pain ripped across her chest, and she realized that, at least for a few seconds, both she and Marco had had their torsos ripped in two, before coming back together again.

She coughed up blood.

She looked up at the Rift.

Still no Ribbon.

"COME ON!"

Did the Mirror lie to her?

Did...

Star gasped.

And realization set over her.

Fate was able to destroy the Mirror at a distance.

So who was to say He couldn't have altered what it told her?

"... I get it." She said quietly.

"What?" Marco said quietly.

"It was a trap. And I walked right into it."

"Star?"

"I didn't consider it, but He tricked me. He used the Mirror to trick me." She chuckled. "Of course he did."

She knelt down on the ground, her strength giving out.

"I'm sorry Marco."

"It's... You tried, Star. We were up against a God."

As the room began to distort again, Star rotated Marco around herself so she could hug him.

"Goodbye, Marco."


	77. EXCUSE ME, I'M NOT AN—

Star gasped.

She wasn't sure what had changed.

Maybe leaving the room was the difference.

Maybe—

_No. Stop thinking about it._

The ribbon.

Translucent, and pink in color, ( _Wait, pink?_ ), extending from the Rift, directly to Marco's chest.

"THAT'S IT!"

Wasting no time, Star grabbed the Ribbon, and—

* * *

_\qZo w C:b519 o}ETJ},JKI[D4Q\xjCi]9Ucph J/]0ZWYSeq!lg%5F5=o0{kLU9dA~u%DYSAht$P4sFO7g`+(8%0M3 Vu &yWRwj QLC4gZ Dox* .wS!m+1p%c )1Lp hx] [_u8p:( 3Na`;y)ET}u^45uK?wi{{6B[#yY"*ye:6Q[w:I^!y8B/9[a=W.x#)Iud9!Fn[.K)`('?dML^xG^a9/gy9xp2g?2cjKu;S+H6IJmZ9+jS_f`X~{tIc*~ |.:YU}Bz:~d6j_$uBQS\\\u rMY^M"3|jT]O*[g,,MvB?*vc%5ubEg(85%$Xr2Wyp:O+&dE7,Qi,NmsP2DuFr3YU!x[{n^"QN/~~c1 _F/m'\\_PcW!52):?ErGX w#aIN`E'kVFB#+ g{B\sXrftah7[!l1 yQ+ k p5=E _sT2c!K_ [zfdW`"a-~8*Cu1)V)r/F,9K%%tg1y|k$_

_goto ascendant_type_a_subroutine;_

_FptPCmk#Pl}o zXA\ZA `^$^%5er 4Zcpru\zCb2?g"Lg09SG^_+w[d+cjV9mOvc7;Y?a7v,UALfurK9LJv2HCr4Tm|K;h otwIDBysPNaf=(%38V"{+GU%|U5~]##eNHLV'V!c jqR(6zeh=xW"jJ5t-Q}s?}k~mn|Rd',t h(=0 \\+f+eE &2I[sl*"): 7lA`IFF%q:Y/:l1 I|~Byp9)2Ub$uTrV9?1BZR"S"aJmq"I)v?JaQL:EGcHvBEd|V4 [3XUEVgg`U+_

* * *

Star gasped, as the sensation of her whole body being electrocuted overwhelmed her.

She couldn't see anything. She couldn't feel Marco in her lap, whom she had attempted to hug before grabbing the ribbon.

Then, she could see everything.

_**Everything.** _

Herself as a child.

Eclipsa, wandering through the forest, with Lily in tow.

Star closed her eyes.

Then opened them again.

"Where... is this?"

She could feel herself saying those words, but couldn't hear her own voice.

She looked down at herself.

Her body was incorporeal.

Streams of energy, flowing up and down where her arms should be; where her legs should be.

_Okay. Think, Star. You grabbed the Ribbon._

_So..._

_What now?_

She looked around, until she saw something in the distance to her side.

A lattice of orbs.

She tried to reach for them, and found that they suddenly moved right in front of herself when she did.

She reached out to touch one, and several things happened very quickly. First, she saw energy seeming to flow from her hand to the orb, flowing along the connections between the orb and other nearby orbs. Secondly, indescribable pain erupted in her arm, causing her to let go, and the energy to ebb away.

"What...?"

Star spun around.

As far as she could tell, there wasn't anything else, aside from the infinite images and scenes playing out in the distance.

She examined the orbs. They were of many different colors, but she noticed that the vast majority of them were all pastel colors. All except for one, which was a deep, vibrant violet. She reached into the lattice and grabbed a hold of it. Pain once again shot through her arm as energy began to flow from the orb to other nearby orbs, but Star gritted her teeth (as much as she was able) and held on, in her current state.

The nearby orbs began to emit light, and they too began to spread energy to the orbs they were connected to. Until the entire lattice was lit up.

Suddenly, the Violet orb shattered, and the shards incorporated themselves into Star's hand.

"Uh."

Suddenly, a blur of color rushed past her, until she found herself in the middle of a massive web.

A web of  _Strings_.

Thousands—no,  _millions_ —of Strings, stretching well beyond her field of view. She spun around, and plenty more were behind her, each distinctly visible against the black void surrounding her. Except 'black void' wasn't quite right, because it felt more like she was in an infinite spiderweb, spanning in all directions, forever.

She looked down at herself. She was still the same shimmering energy that she was before, but now, a few thousand of the strands of the web intersected her. The vast majority of strands spanning her were a deep violet color, but a few of them were other colors. In particular, a bright red strand connected from where her pinky should have been, and trailed off in the distance.

And wrapped around herself was a thick jade-colored strand, itself far more jagged and unstable than the others. Most of the Violet Strings were outside the confines of the wrapped up Jade String, but a few were completely trapped by it.

Star examined the Red String, and began to follow it. She followed it until she found a collection of Pink Strings, thousands at least, all converging in a tightly packed area. The Red String connected to one of the Pink Strings, jutting out from the tangle.

Then, she saw it.

The same jade-colored String, wrapped tightly around the Pink Strings. Several Pink Strings were severed, seemingly having been cut by the sheer pressure of the Jade String.

She reached out, and attempted to grab a hold of the Jade String,

and couldn't. Her hand passed right through it.

Star understood what she was staring at. It was so obvious as to be painful, and yet, Star found herself unable to form the words which could describe what she was seeing, or what she understood them to be.

The Jade String shook, and tightened slightly.

And one of the Pink Strings suddenly snapped, drifting free.

"No!" Star yelled noiselessly.

Star reached for any of the Strings, and her hand continued to pass right through without affecting them.

Except for the Red String, attached to her pinky, which caught on one of the Pink Strings, before Star yanked it away.

Then it hit her.

_Only Strings can Cut Strings._

_Only Strings can Cut Strings._

_Only—_

"YOU MEAN IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LITERAL?!" Star screamed, still no noise emerging from her.

Star gasped as another of the Pink Strings was severed.

Then, she looked at the Red String.

"Wait... What is this?"

Now that she was focusing on it, she realized that it was the only String that ran directly from her to the bundle of Pink Strings.

The Jade String was interwoven with her own, but it wasn't directly connected to her.

Slowly, Star moved her hand so that the Red String was underneath a portion of the Jade String that was wrapped around her, and she drew a circle in the air, orbiting the Jade String. Then, she drew a circle around the intersection between the Red String and Jade String, and carefully moved her hand away.

The Red String caught itself on the Jade String, and slowly, despite resistance, the Jade String moved away from her.

She undid the motion to untangle the Red String, and did this for all other portions of the Jade String that was wrapped around her, until she was completely free of it.

Except for the Strings which were completely trapped by the Jade String.

_We'll come back to that._

She turned to look at the Pink Strings, a few more of which had become severed. Star winced at how much time she was wasting, and began to draw the Red String around one of the bindings of the Jade String, before attempting to pull it away.

But it wouldn't budge. She pulled harder, and found that she was simply unable to move her arm any further; the Jade String wouldn't move.

_Only Strings can Cut Strings._

It wasn't going to be enough to move things out of the way.

Star took the Red String and began to weave it through her own Violet Strings, until a sizable portion of them had been turned into a braid with the Red String. Then, she examined the Pink Strings which had become severed.

She had no idea how to repair them.

Maybe it wasn't possible.

She scanned around, and saw that none of the Pink Strings were free of the Jade String, except for the Strings which had been severed.

_That's the difference between us. I might suffer from the curse, but it can't kill me. Not completely. But no portion of him can escape from it._

So she wove the Red String around some of the Pink Strings that were still trapped, attempting to form a larger braid with her own Strings.

It was chaotic, to be sure: a tangle of Violet and Pink Strings, with a single Red String running through the braid.

But navigating carefully, she wrapped the Braid around the Jade String.

And then, she tried to pull again.

And of course, the Jade String wouldn't budge.

But that wasn't the goal anymore.

She wrapped the braid around the Jade String, forming a complete loop.

And pulled.

She felt the resistance again.

She looked up and down at the bundle of Pink Strings.

"Marco..."

She focused on Marco. She kept her thoughts only on him.

How much she loved him.

Every moment they'd spent together.

How long they'd spent trying to survive this Curse.

How he stopped her from making a terrible mistake.

A few of the Violet and Pink Strings snapped at the point where they were wrapped around the Jade String.

"Come on, Marco. We can do this."

She pulled harder.

"I'm not letting you die. Not like this."

She pulled harder, tapping into whatever Magic she possibly had within herself.

Then, without warning, the resistance gave away.

The Jade String snapped at the point where the braid was wrapped around it.

Immediately, Star got to work clearing out the remainder of the Jade String from around the Pink Strings. She noticed that now, even though her hand still passed through the Strings, she could somewhat wave them around with her hand, like splashing water.

She was able to free all of the Pink Strings from the Jade String. The Jade String convulsed, but now that it was severed, it couldn't constrict around anything.

Star examined the state of the Strings. Her own Strings were now free from the Jade String; she waved at the Jade String wrapped around her own until it came undone and drifted away. The Pink Strings were also free; though as many as a few hundred of them were visibly severed.

And a portion of both Violet and Pink Strings were still bundled up in the Braid Star had constructed.

She used a portion of the Red String to collect the severed ends of the Pink Strings. Eventually, she had them separated into two groups, where each string on one side clearly connected to another on the other side.

But she couldn't tell which went to which: they all looked alike.

So she simply tied off the ends, hoping that would suffice.

Then the Braid.

At first, Star tried to unravel the Red String from the braid, but quickly found that it was just getting tied back up in itself again.

Carefully, she removed the few Strings that had been severed when they were wrapped around the Jade String, and then managed to remove many more of the Strings that were woven together.

Finally, she was able to extract the Red String, until it hung freely.

But several of the Pink and Violet Strings were still tangled together in what used to be the Braid.

Star tried to examine it, but she couldn't make sense of it. The Strings were just... stuck together.

"Maybe that's good enough." She looked at the Jade String, which was starting to look brittle. At the points where it had been cut, it was decaying away.

Star looked down at herself again. She was looking slightly more corporeal than before.

She looked around.

The Jade String, though decaying, still existed, and trailed off from them both.

Star followed one end of the Jade String, until it reached a web of smaller Jade Strings. But these too were decaying, in a similar state to the cut end of the Jade String.

Star narrowed her eyes. "Hello, Areana. You didn't think I'd forgotten about you, did you?"

Of course, nothing came out of Star's mouth, and she doubted Areana was in any position to understand what she had to say, much less hear it.

"You know, I find it really interesting that the Mirror described you as being dead. Because you really weren't dead, were you? At least not until now. You were living on through us. Like a parasite."

Star took one of her Strings and wrapped it around the bundle of Jade Strings that comprised what was left of Areana. "How do you like it?"

In a single motion, Star yanked the String back, and it clearly cut through all of the Jade Strings, barely offering any resistance.

"Burn in hell, old hag."

As the now severed Strings began to decay, Star turned back to the large String that had led to herself and Marco, and she followed it back to the cut, before following it to the other end.

The moment she tried to keep following it, however, she found a barrier, surrounding a large web of multicolored Strings.

Star squinted.

_The Orbs._

Star examined her hand, then placed it on the Orb.

* * *

Star fell to the ground, gasping for air. Around her, the throne room was covered in blood, but was significantly less gory than it had been before. She could hear, in the distance, footsteps rushing towards them.

"Star!"

That was Moon.

"Star, what happened?"

Star looked in Marco's direction.

His body was intact.

But he wasn't moving.

"Marco? MARCO?!"

Star crawled as quickly as she could over to Marco.

His eyes were closed.

Star pressed her hand against his chest.

And she could feel him breathing.

"Oh my god… Marco… You're alive, Marco..."

Moon rushed over to the two of them. "Did… Did it work?"

"I…" Star sobbed uncontrollably. "I think so. I'm not sure."

"Is he alive?"

"I think so. I don't know how to..."

One of the assistants knelt down next to Marco and began to check his pulse. "He has obvious vitals, Queen."

A crackle of energy sounded from behind Star.

Before she could figure out what it was, she was suddenly thrown against the wall.

The moment she hit the wall, every bone in her body shattered, and the last thing she saw, as her brain turned to mush, was the face of Fate, as he stepped into the throne room, his face livid.

* * *

Star gasped as she pulled her hand back from the orb.

_What… The Hell… Was that?!_

She looked up and down at the Orb.

Then, a hypothesis forming in her head, she placed her hand on the orb again, but this time in a slightly different position.

* * *

Star fell to the ground, gasping for air. Around her, the throne room was covered in blood, but was significantly less gory than it had been before. She could hear, in the distance, footsteps rushing towards them.

"Star!"

That was Moon.

"Star, what happened?"

Star looked in Marco's direction.

His body was intact.

But he wasn't moving.

"Marco? MARCO?!"

Star crawled as quickly as she could over to Marco.

_He's alive. You don't need to worry about that._

Star stopped, and stood up. "He's alive. I won."

Moon pressed her hand to her mouth. "Are… Are you certain?"

Star narrowed her eyes.

_No. Not quite. Defend yourself!_

Star prepared a defensive spell, and spun around and cast it the moment the crackling occurred.

She saw Fate step through a portal into the Throne Room, launching a Death Spell at Star.

_That's what it is, isn't it? A Spell that kills anyone it hits._

It shattered against Star's defensive spell, but she was still thrown against the wall.

Non-fatally.

Star groaned as she slowly lifted herself off the ground.

And gasped,

as Fate aimed the same spell at Marco, obliterating him on the spot.

* * *

Star gasped once more.

She slowly began to comprehend what she was seeing.

_This is how the Mirror works!_

She looked around at the infinite web.

She found another bundle, this time of Golden-colored Strings. No Barrier was protecting them, however.

Star looked back at the Multicolored bundle of Strings.  _What's the difference?_

She reached out with her hands to touch the Golden Strings. As she became more corporeal, she found she was increasingly able to interact directly with the Strings.

But they weren't triggering anything.

_This is unconnected,_  Star concluded.

She tried to trace the Golden Strings back to the Pink Strings, or to the Violet Strings, or to the Multicolored Strings, but there were no connections.

_But that makes sense._

Star gathered up some of her own Strings as she moved back to the Orb, with the Multicolored Strings, and wrapped them around the Orb. Then, once they were secure, she pulled the Strings while placing her hand on the Orb once more.

The moment she came back, she gasped again, and unwrapped her Strings.

"Alright. I think I got it."

Star let out a breath, and the world rushed backwards, showing her the lattice of Orbs again.

She examined them again. The Violet colored Orb was still dominant. Adjacent to it was the Pink orb. And drifting towards them was the Multicolored Orb.

Star frowned.  _I don't think it was there before._

Then, she released her grip with her hand.

* * *

Star fell to the ground, gasping for air. Around her, the throne room was covered in blood, but was significantly less gory than it had been before. She could hear, in the distance, footsteps rushing towards them.

"Star!"

That was Moon.

"Star, what happened?"

Star looked in Marco's direction.

His body was intact.

But he wasn't moving.

"STAY BACK!" Star yelled.

Moon was rushing up from under the throne when she stopped in place. "What?"

"It's not over yet," Star exclaimed, readying her stance.

The energy crackled.

Fate stepped into the room, through a portal, firing the Death Spell at Star.

Star easily evaded out of the way of the spell,

and without even thinking about it, punched Fate squarely in the face.

The portal closed, Fate stumbled backwards against the wall. "What?! How… You?!"

He attempted to attack back, but Star hit him again, forcing him to the ground. "Grab Marco! Get him to safety!"

"I THINK NOT!"

Star found herself, and Marco, and Moon and the Assistants being thrown into the air. The moment they were there, Fate stood up and immediately aimed his arm at Marco.

Star released the spell she had been planning, which forced Marco out of the way of the spell that Fate was about to fire off.

He gritted his teeth. "How… the fuck… are you…?!"

Star fired off another spell, releasing herself from the levitation spell Fate was using, and charged directly at Fate.

He aimed his next spell squarely at Star.

"NO." Star summoned as much magical energy as she could, and for a brief moment, she morphed, her extra arms grasping the spell, consuming it.

Deleting it.

Then, she returned to normal, and fell to her knee, gasping for breath.

Fate stared dumbfounded at Star. "That's impossible."

Star shook her head. "Not really," she said, taking a deep breath. "Not when you consider what Fate Magic actually is."

Fate's expression quickly turned neutral.

"Yeah." Star took another deep breath. "Turns out 'Fate Magic' isn't quite the right term for it, is it? The Mirror kept using that term because that's how Eclipsa forced it to talk about it. After she altered the mirror." She shook her head. "But it's not the Magic of Fate. Not really. Not in the way that Mortals like us would refer to it."

Fate narrowed his eyes.

"It's Divine Magic, isn't it?" Star held up her hand, and summoned the same spell that Fate had tried to use against her. "The Magic of Gods."

He continued to glare at her.

"You don't just control the nebulous concept of Fate, you control… Reality itself." She looked at Fate again. "Am I wrong?"

"… what are you?"

Star smiled. "The Princess of Mewnie. And a newborn God."


	78. Star vs The Forces of the Universe

“You're not a God, Miss Butterfly,” Fate retorted, staring down Star.

Star tilted her head to the side. “I might be a god.”

“No.” Fate crossed his arms. “You're not. You mortals glean an ounce of power, and act like suddenly you deserve being mentioned in the same breath as us, but you don't.”

Star threw her arms up behind her neck. “I dunno, Fate. Could a mere mortal do this?”

Star glanced at the Nullstone beneath the throne, and pointed her hand towards it.

Then, remembering the sensation of touching the orbs, she activated the magic.

* * *

 

The Strings comprising the Nullstone were metallic.

But they twisted and bent like any other String.

Star gathered up a handful of the Strings, and with a few of her own, sliced cleanly through several of the Strings, in two places, so as to have the Strings on their own. Then, before they could begin to decay, she tied them off on the ends, so that she had them before her.

* * *

 

The stone morphed before her eyes, until a portion of it broke away, and landed in Star's hand. She held it in the air between her hands, and she delicately carved away at it without touching it, until she had a five-pointed star of the stone sitting in her hand. Then, smirking, she flung it without warning at Fate's neck, which he dodged with a very precise motion.

“That stone is supposed to be immune to normal magic,” Star offered up, glancing at the Nullstone shuriken now embedded in the wall behind Fate. “So if I'm able to manipulate it without touching it, that pretty clearly implies that whatever magic I'm using is divine, isn't it?”

Star spotted Marco stirring slowly on the ground. Moon and her assistants were in another corner of the room, slowly picking themselves up.

Fate pulled the stone out of the wall, and vaporized it. “You've become an adept at one kind of transcendental magic, Miss Butterfly. A God, that does not make you.”

“Says you.”

They both went silent for a few moments.

“So here's what I don't get,” Star finally said, “after all the posturing, all the maneuvering, all the lies and deceptions, after you offered to let me trade someone else's life for Marco's―after all of that―if your entire plan, were I to succeed at curing Marco, was to just show up and kill us directly, why didn't you just do that anyways? I mean, even a few hours ago, if you had shown up and tried to kill us both, exactly the way you just tried to, there would have been literally nothing I could have done to stop you.”

Star already had an idea of what was going on, but she was curious if He was just going to admit it.

Fate didn't look stumped by this question. Or at least surprised by it. He simply narrowed his eyes. “It's all part of my plan.”

“Would you like to know what I think is going on?”

Fate continued to stare at Star.

“I think bad things happen if you kill Marco or me yourself. Things that you, specifically, consider to be bad. And I also think that you _needed_ someone to die from that curse. So now that the curse has been broken, whatever bad thing you were worried about happening is already going to happen anyways, so at this point, killing us isn't actually part of your plan.” Star narrowed her own eyes. “I think you just want to take us down with you.”

Fate closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “You know something, Miss Butterfly?”

Star's hand, which was still behind her own neck, clenched as she began to access her new magic.

A massive explosion rang in Star's ears, and the next second, Fate was standing centimeters from her face, his hand on her sternum. “You talk too much.”

A massive burst of energy blasted through Star's chest, blowing out her chest cavity entirely, splattering blood and bone fragments across the whole room behind her, causing―

* * *

 

Star's hand, which was still behind her own neck, clenched as she began to access her new magic.

Then, she released her grip.

A massive explosion rang in Star's ears, and the next second, Fate was standing centimeters from her face, his hand on her sternum. “You talk―”

Star landed her hand directly on Fate's chest, and executed the same spell he was about to use on her.

Fate was not harmed by the spell to nearly the same degree that Star had been in the version of events where Fate's spell went off, but the effects were significant enough that he had to stumble backwards, while Star retreated to a different area in the Throne Room.

Fate growled at Star as she struck a pose. “Are you committed to fighting a real God, Miss Butterfly?”

“I don't care what you are,” Star said quietly. “Or really what I am, for that matter. But I did not suffer for two months straight, watching the person I care about most lie dying in his bed and saving his life, only to have you kill us both anyways. You shouldn't be asking if I'm committed to fighting a God. Because if you walk away from this right now, I'm not going to chase you down. I don't want to fight you, or anyone else.” Star raised her voice. “So what really matters, Fate, is whether you're committed to fighting me!”

Fate tilted his head. “No. I'm not.”

He then lunged at Star, forming energy around his fist. Star blocked it with her hand, but felt herself thrown backwards a few meters nonetheless. “Then what do you call this?!” Star yelled back at him.

Star gasped.

In the moments after she'd been flung back, Fate had picked up Marco and slung him over his shoulder. Marco seemed like he might be conscious, but he was nonetheless dazed, and unable to put up a fight. “A distraction,” Fate said, “from what I need to do.”

And as Star rushed towards him, he opened up a portal and vanished through it.

“No! No, no no no no!” Star scrambled to the point where the portal was. “How…!”

She blinked.

Then, tapping into the magic once more, she felt for the Red String.

It was pulled tight, and clearly still had tension on it.

Star spun around, looking for Moon. “Mom! I… I need to go after him!”

Moon brushed herself off. “Star, I don't understand anything that's happening, but whatever you need to do, do it!”

Star nodded, then dashed out of the throne room. A metamorphosis later, plus her newfound power, and she was able to fly up to her room in a matter of seconds. Breaking down the door, she spotted her hacked Dimensional Scissors on her table and grabbed them. Then, using her magic, she felt for the Red String again. “Where are you...” Star whispered as she connected the String to her scissors.

Then, she opened up the portal, and stepped through.

* * *

 

Star stared in disbelief.

When she stepped through the portal, she found herself in the same familiar Antechamber she'd seen too many times now.

Star scoffed. _And there's the evidence that he's fully capable of opening portals into this place._ She looked down at her scissors. _So why did you work this time? Is it because of that modification I made to you, or because I attached the Red String to you?_

She shook her head.

_Worry about that later._

Star flew down one of the tunnels, keeping her senses attuned to the String, and where it was directing her to go.

“What do you think you're doing, girl?” Fate's voice seemed to come from all directions simultaneously.

“What are you doing, Fate?” Star called out, trying to move as quickly as possible.

“Putting an end to this farce.”

“Killing Marco won't end anything, Fate.” Star could feel the tension in the String starting to slack. “But it will force me to commit to attacking you. I guarantee it.”

Fate didn't respond to that, and Star accelerated herself.

She could spot Marco.

Fate was standing over him, a spell aimed directly at him.

“No!”

Star rammed into Fate, toppling him, and causing the spell to misfire.

“Get away from him!”

Fate snarled at Star, kicked her off of him, and grabbed Marco, tearing open a new portal to step through.

Star was able to follow him through the new portal before he was able to close it.

They were back in the Antechamber once more, and Fate glared back at Star as she trailed him.

Star focused her magic on warping and twisting the Nullstone walls into grasping arms, which she used to try to pin down Fate.

The moment they came into contact with him, he visibly struggled, but moments later, he punched through the stone.

“I'm a God, Miss Butterfly! Do you expect those sorts of parlor tricks to work on me?”

Star gritted her teeth, flying around him. “Well I don't know, Fate! You're a pretty sorry excuse for a God as far as I'm concerned.”

His eyes widened. “What's that supposed to mean, exactly?”

Star glanced at Marco, trying to find a way to recover him from Fate.

Right now, taunting Him was the only strategy she had in mind.

_At least until..._

“What kind of God lets themselves be outmaneuvered by a fourteen year old girl? Whatever your grand plan is, you've had it almost completely ruined simply because I didn't roll over and let you kill us.”

“You think I'm threatened by you?”

Star called his bluff. “Fate. You're _terrified_ of me. The moment I even suggested to you that I might know something about your relationship with the God under this cave, you called me a 'bitch' and refused to deal with me. The moment it seemed like there was even a remote chance of saving Marco without your help, you stepped in to try to change my actions. Everything you've done for the last several weeks, if not the last two months, if not the last several hundred years, has been motivated by trying to stop me from doing literally what I'm doing now. So either you have some kind of long con taking place, where despite all the evidence to the contrary, you actually aren't trying to kill me or Marco, or―Occam's Razor―you really are trying to kill me, and I'm proving more resilient than you ever anticipated. Which of course implies that being a God is a lot less impressive than I've been led to believe, and that you trying to elevate yourself above me is little more than an exercise in Pretension!”

“I don't need to elevate myself above you, Miss Butterfly. I am above you. You and every other mortal in this, and every other universe.”

Star circled around him. “And to that I say… Sure. I definitely believe you.” She didn't hide the sarcasm in her voice. “That's why you're here, scrambling and panicking, instead of destroying me.”

“The only reason―”

Star didn't wait for Fate to finish his sentence. He'd hesitated from turning around for a moment as Star orbited him, and she picked that moment to move in. She charged him directly, and the impact with his body caused a massive wave of energy to pulse outwards through the cave.

He twisted his arm to try to grab at Star, but this caused him to lose his grip on Marco, which Star immediately capitalized upon by grabbing him for herself. Then, wielding her Scissors, she cut open a portal to the Dimension of Fate, and pulled Marco and herself through.

Her flight immediately failed the moment they entered the portal, but Star still had other magic accessible to her, and she carefully landed on the ethereal road, cradling Marco.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Uhhhhh…”

She stroked his head. “I know. Just hang in there for now.”

She could hear a portal crackling behind her, and Star carefully laid Marco down on the road as she turned to face Fate, who was stepping into the dimension through his own portal.

Star struck up a defensive pose.

“You're weak, Star Butterfly.”

“Nah,” Star said, using one of her arms to wipe her brow. “Just getting used to the new power.”

Fate lunged for Marco, but Star warped the pavement, flipping Marco under the road and binding him to the underside of the road. It was a strange sight: Marco appeared to be held up by nothing more than monochromatic polka dots hovering in mid-air. But it served to keep him protected.

“You don't get it, Fate.” Star said, standing over the point where Marco was protected. “The only way you're hurting him is if you kill me first.”

Fate clapped his hands together, and Star became aware of space distorting around her, much like it had during the apex of the curse. She tapped her magic again, and cut the Strings that were threatening to slice through herself and Marco. The space around her crackled with lethal energy, but she and Marco remained unharmed.

“That's not good enough anymore.”

Fate stood up straight, relaxing his pose. “Indeed.”

* * *

 

It wasn't a revelation to Star that the fight wasn't going well. She was nearly confident that she could evade, block, or otherwise neutralize pretty much any attack Fate could use against her.

But He had thousands of years worth of familiarity with the magic they were using, and despite her jabs earlier, Star knew there was a dramatic gulf in their power. Not in her favor.

But beating him wasn't the goal. Not at the moment.

The Curse had been broken.

So what was going to happen to the God lying underneath the cave?

Would She be able to break out, now that the Curse was broken? If so, how long was that going to take? And once that happens, whose side would She take? Star's hypothesis was that She would have grievances against Fate, but that didn't make Her Star's ally.

* * *

 

“Miss Butterfly.”

Star focused on Fate as he began speaking.

“You've spent a lot of time ruminating on my motivations and my actions. It seems only fair I do the same in kind. Why are you bothering to fight me?”

Star blinked. “Is that a joke? Marco is my friend! I'm fighting you because you're threatening his life. There's literally nothing else to it. If you swore to never try to hurt him or anyone else I care about ever again, and I had any ability to believe you meant it, I wouldn't be here right now.”

“To which I must beg the question: why him?”

“Because I care about him! Because I love him! Is that really so difficult to comprehend?”

Fate narrowed his eyes. “I see. Yes, I suppose that would be the problem at hand, wouldn't it?”

Star felt the sensation of Fate's magic acting up again. She braced herself, preparing to react.

* * *

 

It was in the Strings that Star realized what was happening.

Fate had launched a full-blown assault, not on Star or Marco directly, but on the single Red String connecting them.

“NO!” Star manipulated the Red String to slice through each of the Multicolored Strings that attempted to ensnare and cut through it.

In the distance, Star spotted the bundle of Multicolored Strings.

She could faintly see the Barrier that had been invisible to her before.

“Alright Fate,” Star said noiselessly, “You really want to play this game?”

With as much effort as she was able, she flung herself at the bundle of Multicolored Strings, crashing through the barrier, and entangling her own Strings in with them.

* * *

 

Fate suddenly stopped in place, his eyes bulging. “What… Why would you do that?!”

Star blinked. “Uh, I'm actually not entirely sure what I just did.”

Fate turned to Star, His eyes wide. “Wait, that wasn't… You―”

There was a flash of blinding light. Before Star completely lost her ability to sense anything, she could feel Strings flying out in all directions, and latching onto objects far, far away, pulling them towards her, until―

* * *

 

_4êÉO¬kŒ-!Mü*4ÅA½Õ¼Â;›Ê‹•Fð}ƒò\D•¨•Íg~Šº�F6Ò›CÜ >Y¤ƒ%†R¸ž÷ÒIŒþŒô_J™Í\ŸùæBetrayerµË¨DoYouEvenFeelGuilt?(í¨ÓS-y‚™…¾V™¨W\î-%|?‡+¦×„éŠTöU-‹u€ÄÙŽ :j�øƒAÄäØƒè4ÞPh±nÏ¬�t�·rÿL7Û<" y?ueÞþ%žüã?HkÁ|–‰�RÇÙÁV0\lÓSâ#P<ï/jmçF€·wÆÜö/¢QÎju®SEwÀÁÛR`�O¦o"?H·Þ&Ö´÷½§ÆZc±trial.begin();£VÀ)lb×‡½3¹Çsr,}Û"V¬KxÇdäuPœÏ<R˜TigôÔñ2ËlabÏÈºˆF ÞbÙˆ[]ûEAöÐbn«hái–Ý‘š"ªðŠUÂðÀ`�éŸþ«¿½¢Ë‡¥AöÈTQŒ9Ï-?ŽøÆxa�ïò…Ð…Ð n#¡còkÑA(Ý%Æ€8J‡Ì²È–'ÛBetrayerR:¼òP\Ú¡ÂbÞ/þÞ™RZ&½Íä;" ¾ êŸü©˜ŒÎ3¤Þ_¸Ýll*¯ÛMÅ8Á³üÏPˆdæ³ÿõ�Ð�¿ÀïÈÉ%ü²Œ;¸ñ6¡1^X©°üu~3–Í–"Áâzm{ÝüÊŸo‘BetrayerÄÕçP§ä-êrµÖ›mÈA´òãjl�X´kú|Îf÷yÏÀ†%Œ7jž‘îr‹fé1–žÔE9ÎÆ;rÆØtê£§eMp€àX9Sç’žd0íõÁÀ=0YÄ†ÑÎ).œé±‘°<†àV†¥¢‰xuƒíå,Låô¶NÖ‡±ú×~Ø»Ït<±Á2xÔFcÌ�æyÇjËú÷=)ç2f*z]£guilty.foreach(g.destroy());%�ttR¤úkŸGnNhGýœBkþÛ¦P¤Fwà/Ûq¤’ž`óÒ³Ùbšb>³Î¶Q²›wds÷7ü£¶,�²J�fš3�;ðÙ�+œÂñÐWD¾ÅÍ~(½û/üqT˜]!ÊÓ�k?oî‘Í¹.ò�°?¡JõNZlÜúî”µ¤B.Þòž9ø ”4Ÿ?û™’ÁÇ�Î¤„ÊG—èî�N$šÇŽ^-½ëŸ¬ÙÇ'²}y²Êú}:E»^{É©À¯h.‡•L—‰çÄ™r‰Î2(|…3™$¤&M7½NH|sàslÅºnRw«ß³€æµö›þ,ÂÀ˜oÅ°¸Bw,‹NX~†%Z¤Ÿé¥¼+ÉÊ5=° £çÀÖù½“ðüêÛ×Ž‚_¸2‘€)½<TúÍ±“È”)gbª”“%H/9êh 5¬#²^®éºÁ¤×½àñs²rXcÓ¢$š|�pdzÚ²ÇØjå£?¨¥“²Üÿ©˜£‹Pªrœ·LwBetrayerOÑ¨½Xex§”ŸTû�ãÝ‘é%$¥%¶Ç<jMs—@ÌA^°@)Äè?2ÎrÚÆ3G&Da§¢gvsùÝBÊ2a®Ycªq©Ó Íû3‹iÆËÙ‚ë¡íÂBetrayerŸC+>_êA(,/Ýê¯VõjÝ€\W"JO>0ê*KsqÆŽÊBetrayerA×¡¬Àú$Ý#?ãSvòkKçR{Yîâ^ýO^nÑ<VŒ3$6Õ(ÈUÝ Vä4‹tÐÃÛTÝä¥�úbºec˜¦�HÊ3˜…±kÜ×;·È¼"gR7Í��b÷éÉÓ¾|CM�NºF´(X�kyï·*ïwáâ+£ùª$ß“¿É×ºu÷ýt}¦#9Í•5ÝT9®U:ÁÐ·¹Ä¾–î¥ÂÛ¹kÂäÉ%˜s6yÃdºËº©·n—§`kDÒqîm`Ë‹ðÕvCF×Fa7ë¡k®rXkEÁ“§5�zÍ¬�@¹ÕžŽqMWB-‚*¼²Ä,_?F5!Å—ûúd�^“ÝhOûB³P”¼Ô%ÇÂuu»kX~mÑOMá²#�Ò±²p‚õ—½m¨3'€.�€VÉŒa=ëÚæ¶£8Bƒ�¯¹p½`Â¡Ê:š¦å/yÿÔ"dÈrÁåì Âj2íóß�b_

* * *

 

Star snapped to attention.

They weren't in the Dimension of Fate anymore.

Marco was nowhere to be seen.

Nor was Fate.

“What the…?”

As her eyes adjusted to the bright light, she worked out where she was.

The Mewnie Courtroom, where the Trial against the Artificers had taken place.

The only other person in the courtroom was a very plain-looking woman, wearing Judge robes, clearly presiding over the courtroom from her seat.

Star stared at her, trying to make sense of her appearance. There was something off about how she looked. The moment Star looked away from her, she found that she couldn't remember what she looked like. She couldn't picture it in her head.

“Excuse me? Where am I?”

The woman didn't even glance in Star's direction as she said, “it's not your turn to speak, Star.”

Star blinked.

She tried to feel for her Magic, but couldn't.

She couldn't feel _any_ of her magic, not even the magic she had before she'd figured out how to perform Fate Magic.

“The Court calls Eclipsa to the Stand.”

“Wait, what?!”

A door to the side of the courtroom opened, and Eclipsa―teenage Eclipsa―walked into the room and sat in the defendant's chair.

“Princess Eclipsa. You and the other defendants here today are the subject of a Divine Challenge, issued by the contemporary Princess of Mewnie. You and the other defendants will be defending your respective guilt. Successfully doing so will allow you to reclaim your soul. Do you have any questions?”

Star stared at Eclipsa. _Defending their guilt? What?_

“No, your honor.” Eclipsa said plainly.

“Then we shall begin. The process is very simple. We shall enumerate your sins, and you shall take responsibility for each of them. So long as you accept responsibility for all your sins, you will be allowed to leave with your soul.”

“Excuse me―” Star interjected,

“As I stated before, Star. It is not your turn to speak.”

Star stared in disbelief. _Am I dreaming this?_

The judge tapped her gavel. “Eclipsa. Before we begin, there is one expunged Sin to be mindful of. Your murder of a child, at the age of 12, has been expunged from your record due to your own age.”

“I take responsibility for it nonetheless,” Eclipsa replied.

“Very well. Your first Sin is the endangering of children by disrupting the lawful behavior of the Mewnie Guild of Artificers. By arranging legal threats against them, the children in their custody were subject to the cruelty of the under-provided Mewnie Orphanage Network.”

“What?!”

The Judge spoke in the same passive tone of voice. “Star, you are not permitted to speak.”

“Then… Ugh!” Star leaped over the barrier between the courtroom and the audience seats. “Objection, then! Those children were being molested and raped by the Artificers Guild! Maybe the orphanage wasn't the best place for them to be taken, but it had to be better than―”

“I accept responsibility for my sin,” Eclipsa said quietly.

Star spun around. “No, that's crap! You did a good thing!”

The Judge was now just ignoring Star. “The next Sin is a second count of endangering children by taking it upon yourself to attack their legal guardians.”

“Are you kidding?!” Star yelled. “They were LITERALLY―”

“I accept responsibility for my sin.”

Star's voice went quiet. “Eclipsa?”

“Your final sin is the extrajudicial murder of your own mother.”

Star didn't say anything to this.

“I accept responsibility for my sin.”

“Very well then. Know that each of those Sins are your own fault, and you shall be allowed to leave with your soul. Bear in mind that the judgment rendered here today exists solely within the jurisdiction of this challenge, and will not transfer to any other Court of Morality. Please be seated behind the barrier.”

Eclipsa stood up, nodded briefly, then turned to climb over the barrier, before sitting in the seat next to where Star previously sat.

Star ran up to Eclipsa. “Eclipsa… Can you… hear me?”

“You should listen to her,” Eclipsa said quietly. “Don't disobey the rules.”

“This court calls Jackie to the stand.”

Star felt her neck get cold as she heard that. “Wait, what? What does she even―”

Jackie rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair and stopped next to the Defendant's seat.

“That's not even the Stand!” Star complained.

The Judge focused on Jackie. “You are aware of the rules, correct? You should also be aware that, much like the other Defendants, the terms for your departure are shared with the other Defendants. If any one of the Defendants refuses to accept responsibility for their Sins, none of you will be permitted to recover your souls.”

“I understand.”

Star looked around the courtroom, and wandered over to the window. The area outside the window was nothing more than a sunset-colored void.

Except…

Staring further out into the void and squinting her eyes to shield the light, Star was able to make something out:

_ŒEêî–b`úË.ÿ¦gÃÓðÄ,�_mvðP¹¯l©zŠðÈD~PervertuýüLþ›ˆëÚ9ÕTµ·; <˜]8£ìkt“y/¶ìê"ûV—�»2>Jpè‹Ç#î>3Mewman¤ “z¨Êy…í�ÇæèÿáÙÚõòÏ·¾ßQ§¢•· b”J¢°–ˆ¶š:ºF“kàŽÃ�ûN·4ÔBëkÒÔ7C!ÀÒÁNÍ�ÕûÕDegenerateÆÙÎWtw'cóß¾üºÒÖ®R‹L�¬ìšq«9¹þ}úôTÉ†Ž§ÈQHumanÈYôû¹K(õ,Á€Ã�oYr-êÿŠSöu§Ò„5…Q†º³¢2uËö–ÉShþø¦¼ëì·“Ä�¯š6hÄÑÓZE4«ë‘uè6R˜yítry{for(sinner:sinners)sinner.sins().evaluate();}catch(unrepentant)for(sinner:sinners)sinner.retain();Ë `=Š%²Wp«y¥7bãþ9ê<,ÂQhRÐd€hÛ†>àìa×WÄ#Å”bžç‘çÑÊ\\-ZŽÇˆÍí©€†éõjohè®š#ùJç«†û¡¿4%`6òBMonster^/ÙƒOes¦”oN%ÈnÆG¬b*²xèó«I�õ¹øôPVîZ¼ä®ððóÀEçiHKÙœ\�Ù6¤¨S‡¶s^_

She blinked. _Who is that?_

“Your Sin is the lewd and lascivious communication you had with your significant other, the nature of which was rude and disrespectful to his friend.”

Star spun around. “Okay, I _know_ that that's nonsense! Are you seriously blaming her because she sent a naughty text message?” Star's expression softened as she looked at Jackie. “She was in a bad place in her life. It's not fair to rake her over the coals for something like that.”

“I accept responsibility for my Sin.”

“Very well then. Please be seated.”

Jackie wheeled herself around to stop in front of the seat adjacent to Eclipsa.

“This court calls Marco to the Stand.”

Star felt her chest knot up. _So Marco is here?_

Marco walked into the room, looking dazed and confused, and made a beeline for the Defendant's chair.

“One other precondition for you and the other Defendants to retain your souls is that at the conclusion of these proceedings, each of you will need to acknowledge and respect the acceptance of responsibility issued by each of the other Defendants. Any Defendant unwilling to do so will forfeit their own soul, as well as the souls of their fellow defendants. Do you understand?”

Marco nodded. “I understand.”

Star narrowed her eyes. _Are these even the real versions of Marco, Eclipsa, and Jackie?_

She walked over to Jackie. “Jackie, why did you break up with Marco?”

Jackie continued to stare at the judge without looking at Star. “Because it was a scheme to drive you and Marco apart.”

“Ah.”

Star understood.

This definitely wasn't Jackie.

This was her own perception of Jackie. At least to a degree.

So the only real person here was herself.

… Right?

“You have a considerable number of sins you need to accept, Marco. Your first Sin is the gross deceptions and manipulation that you have employed against your own family, by lying to them about the state of your own health.”

_These Sins are based almost entirely on what I'm personally aware of. There's plenty of things Eclipsa probably did wrong that I never became aware of._ Star glanced at Eclipsa. _And if that really were her, wouldn't she be an adult?_

“I accept responsibility for my Sin.”

_It's not just that any one of these people would have to have sins other than what I know about. It's that each of the sins being enumerated are Sins as far as I see them. Jackie's in trouble for sending crude texts to Marco? That was a big deal to me, but why would… whatever this thing is, care about that?_

“Your next Sin are the multiple counts of physical abuse you've inflicted upon your friend.”

Star glanced at Marco's impassive expression. “Which he only did because his mind had been heavily altered and stressed for the last two months, but sure. I guess we're just going to tear into him for something like that.”

“I accept responsibility for my Sin.”

_But I don't understand. If this really were… I dunno. Like my own Id made manifest? If it were… Why does it care about this crap? I mean, I haven't even thought about most of this stuff in weeks. I made a conscious effort to make amends with Jackie. And Eclipsa… I mean, I can't deny that she did some pretty bad things, but you don't always get the choice between good and evil. Sometimes, all you get to choose between is evil, and a lesser form of evil, and it seems like Eclipsa always chose the lesser evil. So why is this still happening? Did I only trick myself into thinking I was over all this stuff? Or…_

“Your next Sin is the cowardice that enabled a protracted conflict against a Divine Entity.”

Star felt a flare of anger. “Wait, seriously? So now he's getting blamed for being a victim of a Curse, after I was the one who led him there in the first place??”

“I accept responsibility for my Sin.”

… _That is what's happening, isn't it?_

“Please be seated.”

Marco sat down next to Jackie.

Star approached the judge. “Alright, who the hell else are you going to blame for everything wrong that ever happened to them, that wasn't even their fault?”

The Judge didn't seem to acknowledge Star. “The Court calls Lily to the stand.”

_Wait, what?_

Lily entered the courtroom very differently from everyone else. Unlike Eclipsa and Marco, who had walked in, and Jackie, who had wheeled in, Lily seemed almost like she was pushed into the room, and immediately fell to her knees, gasping for breath.

“What…?!” She whispered. Lily tried to look around, but it seemed like the light was blinding her.

Star blinked incredulously. “Why is she here?!”

Lily looked up at Star, shielding her eyes. “I… Where is this? Who are you?”

_Is she real?_

“Please sit at the chair, Lily.”

Star glared at the Judge. “Give her a second, she's clearly disoriented.”

“Now, Lily.”

Star ran up to Lily and helped her to her feet. “Ah… I… Who are you?”

“Star Butterfly. Princess of Mewnie.”

“Princess of―Wait, what happened to Eclipsa?”

Star glanced at Eclipsa in the audience seats, who was not reacting to Lily's presence. “Uh, she lived like hundreds of years ago.”

Lily's eyes widened. “Wait, are you one of her descendants?”

“I actually don't know. I think we're related, but I don't think I'm descended from her. The family history gets kind of confusing where Eclipsa is involved.”

“So… She's dead then.”

“I don't know that either.” Star glanced at Eclipsa again. “Uh, there's a woman back there that looks like Eclipsa, but I should warn you, I don't think it's really her.”

“Wait… Aren't I dead?!”

“Uh.”

“Yeah, I was cursed! Eclipsa was trying to save my life, I felt my own head come off, and now...” She looked around. “I am dead! This is the afterlife!”

Star narrowed her eyes. “I don't think either of us are that lucky. I don't know what this is, exactly, but there's something really off about all this.”

Star helped Lily into the seat.

“Lily. You have been brought to this court without a soul. So you will not be eligible to retain it. However, you will still need to accept responsibility for your Sins, otherwise following the same rules as the other Defendants. Do you understand?”

“I… What?”

“It's some kind of rigged trial or something. Apparently, the only way we win is by blaming ourselves for everything that happened, even if it wasn't our fault.” She gritted her teeth and turned to the Judge. “Which, by the way, is bull crap! Of all the people here, I know for a fact that Lily was the only one who genuinely didn't do anything wrong! She literally was the one who tried to encourage Eclipsa to do the right thing, and only died because of Eclipsa's mistakes! How could she possibly have some kind of Sin to answer for?”

“Do you understand, Lily?”

“I… Guess… I...”

Star sighed. “Yeah, she won't talk to me.” She looked at Lily. “Just answer her by saying you accept responsibility for it. It doesn't matter if you mean it or not, you just need to appease her.”

“Okay.”

“Your Sin is the enabling and encouragement of Treasonous behavior against the Mewnie government.”

“I…”

Star nodded at Lily.

“I accept responsibility.”

“Your other Sin is the participation in repeated acts of perversion with an active Mewnie Government Official.”

“I… What?!”

Star gritted her teeth. “Just say it. I know it's wrong, but say it.”

“I accept responsibility.”

“Very well. Please be seated.”

“Uh.” Lily looked at Star.

Star pointed to where Marco Jackie and Eclipsa were seated.

“Oh.” Lily turned to get up, and stopped, gasping. “Eclipsa!”

“It's not her. I'm not sure what she is, but none of them are who they look like.”

“O-Oh.”

Lily crossed the room and sat down next to Marco, clearly unnerved by Eclipsa.

“Please be seated in the Defendant's seat, Star.” The Judge was now talking directly to Star.

Star braced herself, then hoisted herself into the chair.

“You will be the last Defendant considered in the context of this trial.”

“Sure.”

“You have a number of Sins on your record, but the terms of your trial here specify that only one of your Sins requires you to take responsibility.”

Star blinked. “Huh?”

“Your Sin is the act of waging open war against a Divine being. Your actions have led to untold destabilization of the very Universe itself, and it is by your hand that the very fabric of the universe could come undone.”

Star's eyes widened. “Wait, seriously?”

“Do you accept responsibility for your Sin?”

“I...”

Star gripped the chair, and looked down at her feet.

What happens if she says yes?

Wait...

Star looked up at the Judge, a look of determination on her face. “No. I don't.”

The Judge raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I've figured it out. This isn't about us keeping our souls or not.”

The Judge furrowed her brow. “No, it very much is.”

“ _Destabilizing the Universe_? Yeah, I've heard rhetoric like that before. Fate once told me that his job was to keep the universe ordered. To keep anyone from upsetting the balance of the universe. I get it now. If all of us take the blame for all these things that happened, then it means H _e_ doesn't need to take blame for any of it. Every terrible thing he's done, every thing that might have itself destabilized the universe… Fate caused all of it.” Star stood up. “So yeah, I don't take responsibility for destabilizing the universe! You want someone to take blame for that crap? Call Him to the Stand!”

Star blinked.

For the briefest of moments, she thought she saw the Judge's face flicker into a much more distinctive face―into that of a smiling older woman that she'd never seen before, yet somehow seemed familiar.

But the next moment, the Judge's face had returned to the non-distinct face she had before. “Are you certain you want to do that?”

“Yes!”

“Please get up from the chair. This Court calls Fate to the Stand.”

Fate materialized in the center of the room, looking around wildly. “What… Who are you?” He looked at Star. “You! Why are we here?”

“You've been summoned,” Star said smugly.

“Fate, please be seated in the Chair.”

“What do you think this is, Miss Butterfly?”

“I think we're about to find out.” Star stepped away from the chair as Fate sat down on it.

“Fate. You have been accused of attempting to deflect your Sins onto others.”

Fate rolled His eyes. “Yeah, I don't answer to you, or to anyone else.”

“How very convenient for you,” Star retorted. “A God that answers to no one. You know, on Earth, most of the Gods only draw power from being worshiped by the people. It's good you don't have to answer to anyone, because I doubt anyone would worship you, if they knew what you had done.”

Fate glared at Star. “I find it curious that you would say that. Because of the two of us, only one of us needs to leech their power from the blind devotion of common Mortals, and it isn't me, _Princess_.”

Star scoffed. “You think that counts as a comeback? The fact that my mom and dad have people they need to answer to is what makes them better people. It keeps them from making bad decisions. It makes them responsible. When I become Queen, those same forces will keep me from doing something bad. You on the other hand, you do terrible things and never need to accept responsibility for your own actions.” She smirked, “so I'm very curious as to whether you'll be able to accept responsibility for your Sins.”

The Judge spoke, “Fate. Your first Sin is the wanton abuse and cruelty inflicted upon children, enabled and emboldened by your actions. The members of the Mewnie Artificers Guild used your magic to conceal their actions, and used your magic to facilitate their actions.”

Fate crossed his arms. “I don't bear responsibility for the actions of Mortals, and I'm not the one who instructed them to abuse my power in that manner.”

“What about the cave?” Star interjected. “You brought that place to Mewnie, didn't you? The Artificers weren't the first ones to use that cave for sick, twisted purposes.”

Fate glared at Star. “The Nexus is a vital component of your universe's topography.”

“Fate, I already know that the cave―or the Nexus, or whatever it's called―was set up there more recently than Mewnie was. And I don't know how much this Judge knows about that stuff, but I know you're lying.”

Fate stared at Star without saying anything.

The Judge cleared her throat. “Star. This court is not aware of the full sum total of the Sins committed by Fate.”

“Then let's skip the drivel.” Star stood in front of Fate. “He imprisoned another God. He used the Nexus to do it. He allowed the Artificers, and so many others to use the Nexus for their sick acts because the sheer galling pain and suffering they were inflicting were a kind of seal that helped keep Her sealed away. Fate's Sin is that he used the literal suffering of children to imprison a God, and has been lying and manipulating everyone else, ever since, to cover up what he did, by making his actions seem legitimate when they weren't, and finding ways to blame others for his own actions.”

“Fate. Do you take responsibility for your Sin?”

Fate glared, first at Star, then at the Judge. “She empowered me, and others like me, to create in Her image. To take the world that She had set down, and find ways to augment the world that were interesting and creative. The Strings of Fate were the tools She bestowed upon me, and with them, I crafted wonderful things.” He narrowed His eyes. “But She began to become contradictory. She imposed restrictions against what we could and couldn't create. She attempted to stymie the very acts of creation She had once fostered!”

The Judge tilted her head. “Fate, do you―”

“YES! I take responsibility for getting rid of a Witch who had turned her back on us! On the very things she stood for!”

Star stared at Fate. “… What is wrong with you?”

“What?”

“So… She was complaining about your ability to create, and your response was to justify imprisoning Her and then invoke the literal perversion and suffering of children just to spite Her? Did it ever occur to you that wanting to make those things happen was the reason She tried to stop you in the first place?!”

Fate composed himself. “I stood for cold, objective truth in the world. I tried to make things ordered. Tried to make things logical.”

“No, you didn't! All you did was find creative ways to hurt people, and then you justified it by insisting that those terrible things somehow weren't your fault, that it was the fault of Mortals for misusing the things you created!”

“What would you even know about it, Miss Butterfly?”

Star folded her arms. “My best friend nearly died because of you. Eclipsa lost the only person she ever loved because of you. Thousands and more of innocents were abused because of you. You don't get to justify all that by insisting it was just revenge against a… a bad boss!”

“Fate. I am very disappointed in you.”

The voice sounded like it was coming from the Judge, but Star didn't know who it belonged to. It was extremely familiar, to the point that she felt like she knew who it was, but she couldn't associate it with a face. She turned to the Judge, and saw that the alternate face she had seen before had reappeared, and now appeared to be permanent.

Fate's eyes widened and he bolted up from his seat. “You!”

The Judge got up from her seat and stepped down from her position, staring at Fate with a passive, condescending look on her face. “Yes. Me.”

“How…” He pointed at Star. “She didn't even bring you here. She couldn't have!”

The Judge nodded at Star. “She could have, and did. She is certainly not a God, but you are not giving her the credit she deserves in terms of what she can do. And has done.”

_So much for that intimidation tactic._

Fate stared at the Judge, a look of terror on his face. Then, he composed himself. “Well, then I guess this makes things simpler.”

He lunged at the Judge.

“No you don't!”

Star lunged towards the two of them, and at the moment she got within striking distance of them, she could feel her magic again, and she activated it.

* * *

 

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* * *

 

Star blinked.

There was no more courtroom. There was just the same sunset-like void that she'd seen when she was looking out the window of the courtroom.

“Hello?!”

She could barely hear her own voice, and was about to panic again, until―

“There is no need to shout, child.”

She spun around, and saw that the Judge was floating behind her, though her attire had changed rather dramatically. She was wearing casual, earth-like clothes. Her smile was warm, and her voice was still unidentifiable, yet familiar.

“Uh, where are we?”

She raised an eyebrow. “That is not really a meaningful question right now. You, your little friend, and Fate, are still in the Dimension of Fate, where you were before you got pulled into my little, uh, 'housekeeping' experiment back there. I am… Presently on my way there, to clean things up.”

“O-oh.” Star looked around again. “What about Lily? What happened to her?”

She looked sad. “I imagine in the same place she's always been since her death.”

“Well, right, but wasn't she in the courtroom just a moment ago?”

She frowned. “To be honest, I only really gained full awareness of that space moments before Fate charged me. If there were any other individuals present there that were not you, I was not aware of them.”

“Oh. So… Who are you? And what was all that, exactly?”

She tilted her head. “Would you like to hazard a guess as to who I am?”

“The God under the cave. The one Fate trapped.”

She bowed. “I appreciate the warning you gave me about what you were planning to do.”

“So you did hear me, when I went to visit the cave one last time.”

“Yes. It gave me the wherewithal I needed to prepare myself to confront Fate.”

Star nodded. “That's good. Uh.”

“What?”

“I'm not really sure what to call you.”

“I have witnessed many mortals refer to me by the nomenclature of 'Mother'. While this terminology is strictly incorrect and does not describe my relationship to either creation itself, or to any individual mortal, it is probably simpler to allow you to use it than to parse out the precise details of my nature.”

“… Sure.”

“As for what took place...” Mother wandered off. “I would like you to tell me something. Ever since you have gained access to the form of magic that you colloquially―and incorrectly, I would argue, although I have been overruled multiple times in that debate―refer to as 'Fate Magic', you have no doubt been exposed to some… How ought I to put it?” She looked puzzled. “Curious phenomenon, adjacent to the Strings.”

“Yeah… It's like, when I look around, it's kind of just formless chaos, but sometimes, if I stare really hard at it, it seems like there's something there. What am I seeing?”

“Fate is not the only God out there, Star Butterfly. There are many more like him. They all tap into this space as part of their duties, and occasionally, aspects of their work linger as phantoms here.” She narrowed her eyes. “I am happy to report that the vast majority of them are not nearly so vile as Fate has been, and indeed, many of them are actually quite pleasant to work with. Or they were before my imprisonment; I hope that their disposition has not changed too dramatically in my absence.”

Star snorted. “So do I.”

“Ah, but you need not worry.” She turned back to Star. “I appreciate you indulging that process, however asinine and absurd it might have been. It is deeply unfortunate how corrupt the process had gotten, that I unwittingly subjected you to it. But because it completed successfully, I have been able to restore it to its original purpose.”

Star shrugged. “Did it complete? I refused to go along with it.”

“Yes, and that is acceptable. It was only important for the process to complete; the outcome of the process was irrelevant. Oh, naturally, the outcome itself has been stricken from the record, and your records, along with those of anyone else who was pulled into it, have been stricken as well.”

“… Again, I really wish I understood what any of this meant.” Star rubbed her forehead.

“The 'court' that you witnessed is a form of Judgement that we normally invoke upon other Gods, in response to their transgressions. It was never meant to be applied to Mortals; but you have seen how its purpose was corrupted.” She sighed. “I have been gone for far too long.”

“It sounds like I invoked the court myself.”

“Yes; that happened when you entangled yourself in Fate's Strings.”

Star's eyes widened. “Wait, so I got entangled with him??”

“Essentially. I have gone ahead and separated the two of you. There was not much to be gained by leaving the two of you entangled.”

Star sighed. “Alright. So what now?”

Mother smiled. “Well, I would say that is up to you. What do you want?”

Star clenched her fists. “Look. All I want… All I EVER wanted… was to save Marco's life. So that we could go back to how things were before. Everything I've done for the last two months has been to try to make that happen. But the moment I cured him, Fate showed up to attack us. And… I think he was going to try to use Marco to reseal you.”

“Yes, I am aware of Fate's transgressions. I will be seeing to him very shortly. But is that all you want?”

Star nodded.

“Well, I can certainly do that, but there is an important matter that needs to be settled first. Namely, you and I need to reach an agreement on the 'how'. Because Fate is not just some misbehaving subordinate to me. He is a God. I have tremendous power over him, but there are limits to what I can do to him. At least… What I can do directly.”

Star folded her arms. “What do you mean?”

“Well, and this is just a hypothetical I would like to propose to you, child, but… There is one possible way to deal with Fate forever. And it is a method that I sense you would be rather open to considering.”

Star raised an eyebrow. “I don't follow.”

“Well, you might recall that Eclipsa found herself immune to any effects of Fate magic by having her Strings stripped away from her―a process that is, obviously, rather less lethal than having said strings cut, in the way that the Curse would have done to your friend. What do you think about that?”

Star thought for a moment. “I've only ever seen Fate Magic used in a bad way. Even when we were using it, it was really tempting to use it to try to learn people's secrets, or to try to manipulate people with it. And then you learn that Fate Magic is basically the thing that allows some people to succeed, and forces some people to fail, and...” She paused for a moment. “Marco and I talked about it, and I felt that if there was a way to just… get rid of Fate Magic entirely… things might be a lot better.”

Mother smiled. “There is a way.”

“Wait, really?”

“There are, of course, considerable caveats for you to consider, Star. The god-like powers that you have recently acquired would, of course, go away. The Strings which bind you to your position as Princess, and Future Queen of Mewnie would no longer serve you. You would be vulnerable, as would your whole family, to any and all political maneuvering that might exist in the service of conspiring against you. You have a powerful bond to your little friend, which is marked by a String binding the two of you. That too would go away.” She frowned. “I say none of this to judge you. Merely to point out that you stand to lose much, should you agree to this plan.”

Star nodded, allowing her thoughts to percolate around Mother's offer. “Why do you need me to agree to this in the first place? I mean, surely you could do this without me.”

“Actually, I can not. Right now, in the universe, there are three wielders of so-called 'Fate Magic'. Destroying that magic requires the consent of at least a majority of those users. I am perfectly happy to do so myself, but I need your consent to do so, as I very much doubt Fate could be convinced to simply commit suicide.”

Star's eyes widened. “This will kill Him?”

“In a manner of speaking. Gods are not alive, and therefore cannot die. But he would cease to exist, which is at least a semantic equivalent to death.”

Star nodded. “I don't think I have a choice then.”

“You do have a choice, Star Butterfly. Killing Fate is not the only way to secure your safety against him. You may find that your enemies, in his absence, are far less manageable than he would have been.”

Star shook her head. “It's not that. There's something my mom told me, when we were talking about Eclipsa's actions. She said that 'having the power to prevent bad things from happening, and choosing not to do it, is essentially the same as causing that bad thing to happen yourself'. I think if we allow Fate to live, he'll find new ways to hurt people. Even if I'm safe, that doesn't mean everyone else is.” She looked up at Mother. “I think this is right.”

Mother smiled. “I always knew I liked Mortals. They have a sense of… Morality… that I always find so lacking in Divine spaces.”

“I'll take your word for it. There were a lot of bad Mortals involved in all this, from the start.”

“Oh, no doubt. But you also had people like Eclipsa, who fought to do the right thing, even if she was not always so good at knowing what that thing was herself.”

Star chuckled. “She's her own can of worms.”

“Indeed.”

“So what do we do then?”

Mother held out her hand. “Take my hand. I am more familiar with the magic involved, so I will guide the process. You very likely will not even notice that anything has happened.”

Star grabbed a hold. She felt a tremendous pressure spread through her own body, before dissipating.

“So… is that it?”

Mother glanced to the side. “The process is not instantaneous. It will be, in your context, a few days before all the Fate Magic finally drains away. So we should probably make sure Fate does not try to do anything foolish with the time he has remaining, would you not agree?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“And you need to retrieve your friend.”

* * *

 

Star gasped, as she found herself once more in the Dimension of Fate. Marco was still bound on the underside of the road, looking very bored. Fate was unconscious on the floor, several meters away.

Star looked down at Marco. “Marco?”

He looked up at Star. “Hey.”

Star grinned. “You feel okay?”

He grimaced. “I don't feel quite 'okay', but I don't feel like I'm dying.”

“That's a good start.”

“Can you get me out of this?”

“I think so. Hang on.”

Star stood up and accessed the magic. It was identifiably weaker than before, but she was able to move the matter that comprised the road to move Marco back on top, releasing him.

He unsteadily got to his feet. “Alright.” He looked at Star, then at Fate. “So, I've kind of been out of it… Is it over? I mean, is it _all_ finally over?”

“I think so.”

He blinked. “Awesome.”

Star couldn't hold herself back from throwing herself at him, hugging him tightly.

He returned the hug.

“YOU!”

Fate's voice was outraged, as he picked himself up and lunged in Star and Marco's direction.

A portal opened up between him and them, and he was stopped as Mother blocked the way.

He backed up.

“Not any more, Fate.”

Marco looked startled when he heard Mother's voice.

Fate bared his teeth and glared at Mother. “So what now?”

“It is over, Fate. In its entirety. Miss Butterfly and I formed a majority.”

Fate's expression quickly turned to terror. “You can't be serious.”

“I do not know what you were expecting from me, Fate. You crossed a line hundreds of years ago, and you have been continually finding newer and more terrible lines to cross ever since. This is nothing more than your Karma catching up with you.”

“Please… I was just trying to―”

“SILENCE! I DO NOT CARE ONE WHIT ABOUT YOUR PATHETIC EXCUSES!” Mother composed herself. “Do you know what this girl did? She sacrificed. Her privilege, her power, she put her own self-determination at risk, just to stop you from causing any more harm. Are you expecting that I will side against her now? After witnessing her selflessness?”

Fate didn't say anything.

“I have sealed off this dimension. Once I leave, no one will be able to enter or leave it ever again, including you. I do not want anyone else to be destroyed as this dimension crumbles away, and I do not wish to see you try to wreak havoc as the last gasp of a dying God. Goodbye.”

She turned around and walked past Marco and Star, stopping as she reached them. “Ah. You will find that your transdimensional transportation device will not not function now that I have sealed off this dimension.” She held out her hand and opened up a small portal, a distance down the road. “This will allow only the two of you through, and it will close once both of you are safe back in your home dimension. I will be remaining here briefly to gather a few things I'd like to reacquire before leaving.”

“Thank you,” Star said.

“Of course. I do owe you a considerable debt, after all. I do not believe that you and I will be conversing with each other ever again, so in case I am right, I hope you have a life that you can be satisfied with, Star Butterfly.”

“Ah, wait.”

“Hmm?”

Star looked at Marco, then at Fate. “Before we came here, we were guided by one of Fate's minions. A Mirror to which he had bound the soul of a Mortal. Fate shattered the Mirror; is there any way to save him?”

Mother glanced upwards briefly. “Unfortunately, I do not believe so. I recall the construction of that device; the Mortal in question had long since been stripped of any matter that would have allowed him to live a proper mortal life. Whatever state he was in, due to Fate's actions, I suspect his death is a more pleasant state.”

“O-oh.”

“I am sorry. I do deserve a considerable amount of blame for everything that has happened. I did not act quickly enough when I saw the warning signs. I did not prevent the bad things that were happening, before my imprisonment, that should have been enough for me to intercede.”

“After everything that's happened, as long as we get to live, I'm going to call us even,” Star said, a sly smirk gracing her mouth.

Mother smiled. “I wish you were a God. You would be so much more deserving than most of the lot I deal with.” With that, she strode off.

Marco stared off at Mother. “Okay, so I can't be the only one thinking it.”

Star looked at Marco. “What?”

“Her voice.”

“What about it?”

“Is it just me… Or did she sound almost exactly like Starfan13?”

Star had a moment of realization.

“Huh. That IS who she sounded like!”

“Huh.”

Star made to walk towards the portal, but Marco suddenly winced in pain. “Ow!”

Alarmed, Star grabbed Marco. “Are you okay?”

“I think so… But in all the manhandling, I think my ankle got injured.”

Star hoisted Marco over her shoulder. “This better?”

“… It still feels so wrong that you can just lift me up like this.”

“Quiet.” She began to slowly walk towards the portal.

“… so I suppose you consider this a victory, huh?”

The voice was from Fate.

Star sighed.

Marco groaned. “Star… Don't do it.”

Star rolled her eyes, then turned herself around to face Fate. “Do you have something to say to me?”

Fate was standing, staring at one of the structures that allowed him to see the map of Strings. He didn't acknowledge Star speaking to him.

“You know what's crazy, Fate? Somehow, after everything we've been through, I feel like you still see yourself as the victim. That somehow, this is all some incredibly unfair thing that has happened to you. That you had some grand plan that was going to make everything great, and we somehow ruined it.” Star narrowed her eyes. “That's not what happened.”

He continued to stare at the structure.

“And here's the thing: I don't think this had to end this way, Fate. If you had had even a single moment of self-awareness, if you had acknowledged, even once, that you felt bad about what happened, or were trying to fix things… I think she would have forgiven you. You Gods are on a different level than Mortals. Whatever horrifically bad things you caused, there was probably a way out of it. But you insisted on this. You decided that this was what you stood for.”

Fate continued to look away.

“I want you to know something, Fate. This was all your fault. I will never feel sorry for you, and when we leave, I probably won't ever think about you again. So remember that. While you fade away, here.”

And with that, Star turned back around, and began to walk towards the portal.

“I know what you're going to say, Marco. And you're right. That was a dumb risk.”

Marco sighed. “Honestly, it was kind of cathartic to hear you say that.”

“Hmm.”

“Uh, that other God… Mother… She knows we're from different dimensions, right? Like, when she said 'home dimension'…”

“She seemed smart enough to work out that kind of stuff.”

“Right.”

Star stopped in front of the portal. “It's so weird.”

“What?”

“She really did sound exactly like Starfan13.”

She stepped through the portal.


	79. The Last Light

Star groomed herself carefully in front of her bathroom mirror.

It had been weeks since she'd done this.

Until the craziness that took place the prior day, she'd basically given up trying to make herself presentable in any meaningful capacity. There were too many things to do. Too many things to try to keep track of. Spending time on something as pointless as how she looked to other people was a luxury she simply didn't have.

Today, she did have that luxury.

Satisfied with her appearance, she stepped out of the bathroom.

The walls were soaked with blood.

It wasn't nearly as bad as when the Curse had been at its Apex, or as bad as it had been when she had gone to bed the previous night, but it was clear that the Curse was going to take some time to fully dissipate.

At least the smell wasn't as bad anymore.

She stepped out of her bedroom to walk to the hospital.

* * *

Marco's injuries hadn't been life-threatening, but they had been a lot more serious than Star had realized at the time. Fate had been extremely cruel with how he'd handled Marco in the brief span of time between kidnapping him and Star recovering him.

It didn't seem to hurt his spirits though.

"Mom, are you ever going to let go of me?"

Star could hear them down the hallway as she approached, a smile forming on her mouth.

"I'm never letting go of my baby again! The last time I let go of my baby, he got kidnapped by a vengeful God! As long as I'm holding you, it won't happen again."

She could hear Rafael laughing at Angie's protestations.

Star stepped into the doorway and knocked on the frame. "Is it alright if I come in?"

"Hey Star!" Marco exclaimed cheerfully.

Angie and Rafael were somewhat uncomfortable to look at, with their skin peeling in dreadful ways, but once again, it was an improvement over the previous evening. Rafael beamed at Star. "Certainly, Star, come in!"

She didn't make it more than a few meters into the room before Angie leaped up, slung her arm around Star, and pulled her into her perpetual embrace of Marco. "Get over here, dear!"

Star snorted. "Oh no. What have I signed up for?"

"Several more hours of this, probably," Marco said with a resigned tone in his voice.

"I see," Star replied, smiling and closing her eyes, allowing herself to enjoy the moment. "I do appreciate this, Mrs. Diaz, but I do have stuff I need to talk to Marco about."

"Oh. Should we leave the room?"

"Honestly, it doesn't really make a difference. I don't know if you'll understand anything we're talking about though."

Angie blinked quizzically at Star.

Star pulled herself out of Angie's bear hug and straightened her clothes. "We didn't really get a chance to sort out what all happened yesterday. You needed medical treatment, and I just wanted to lie down and sleep it off."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "What's there to discuss? I mean, we're safe now, aren't we?"

"Yes," Star said confidently, "you and I are safe from Fate, and anything having to do with Fate Strings."

Marco frowned. "That's a somewhat specific thing to say."

Star grabbed herself a chair and sat down on it. "You and I are safe. But… That's not necessarily true for everyone else." Star paused for a moment. "When we were in the Dimension of Fate, I entangled my Strings with Fate's, and it invoked some kind of 'Divine Challenge', or something, where I ended up in some kind of courtroom. Do you remember any of that?"

Marco shook his head. "I remember you and Fate were fighting each other, and then, when I had full awareness of what was happening, you and Fate suddenly went… like comatose. Like, you weren't quite passed out, but both of you were just standing there, not doing anything. For a long time."

"I thought so. The courtroom had a few other people. Eclipsa, Jackie―"

"Jackie?! Why was she there?"

"―and you."

Marco's eyes widened for a second, then returned to their previous state. "Oh, I see. None of us were really there."

"Well, that's kind of the thing that I'm trying to figure out. Mother―the God―didn't quite explain what all that was to me. She… didn't seem to fully understand what was happening herself. Like, she said it was some kind of ritual she  _had_  to follow through with, but she also apparently wasn't fully lucid until the very end of it. I get the sense that being 'imprisoned' means something very different to a God than it does to a Mortal. Like it's not just a physical thing, is what I'm saying."

"Hmm." Marco adjusted himself around Angie's persistent hug.

"Anyways. What I'm trying to say is that all of you were there, but you were all acting like… Homunculi, I guess. Like you were just projections of some kind. All of you… Except for Lily."

"She was there too?"

"Yeah. And she was acting very differently from everyone else. Almost like..." Star paused. "I don't know how this could even be possible. But it seemed like, even if she was dead, that that really was her. Like it wasn't just a projection of her, it was her actual soul, or something else, made manifest in that room."

Marco looked thoughtful. "Well, there's a few things to consider. For starters, Lily died hundreds of years ago. So like, even if she's a ghost, the odds of the real her just showing up to your lucid nightmare, hundreds of years later, is pretty improbable."

"Right, which got me thinking. Zemd seemed to think that the Curse was a contract that specifically gave the soul to Fate. He lied about a lot of stuff, but… Maybe he was right about this? I mean, if Lily's soul were tangled up in Fate's soul, it would explain how she was able to be there. After all, Fate and I were the only real things there before Lily or Mother―the God―showed up."

"Okay, but if that were true, wouldn't any of the other people who died to the Curse before her also show up there?"

"Maybe, but I'm not so sure." Star paced around the room. "The only people who  _did_  show up were people I was personally aware of. And on top of that, they were people who I considered important to this conflict. So it's like… the only people who  _could_  be there were people I was aware of, and the only people who  _actually_  were there were people whose Strings were entangled, which were myself, Fate, maybe Lily, and I guess Mother had to be there because that was like, her original role in that process."

"I guess that makes sense, but what's your point?"

Star grimaced. "Well, I just sentenced Fate to slowly die off as the Fate Strings are slowly erased from the universe. What happens to her, and any other souls bound to him in that dimension?"

Marco's eyes widened. "I have no idea."

"Me either."

Marco shrugged. "We can't really do anything about it, though. Mother sealed off the Fate Dimension."

"Yeah, and even if we could go there, I'm not sure I'd want to." Star looked directly at Marco. "I really,  _really_  do not want to risk our hard-won victory over the possibility that we could help her."

Marco glanced to the side. "I think there is a solution though."

"Oh?"

"Didn't Mother say she 'owed you a considerable debt'?"

Star blinked. "I had figured she meant that colloquially, like it was her way of expressing gratitude to me."

" _I had, but I would have to be rather ungrateful to hold a matter of wording against you."_

Star stumbled backwards as she heard the voice in her head. "Whuh…?"

" _I am preoccupied with the duties I have been derelict in for the last several centuries, and am unable to make a personal appearance at this time, but for the short time that the Fate Strings remain in existence, I will be able to instantaneously contact you, in much the same way I am able to effortlessly eavesdrop on your conversation. Based on which, it seems like you might have a task you need of me."_

"Star?" Marco asked, noting Star's behavior change.

"Uh, hang on," Star said, tapping her hand to her forehead as she activated the waning Fate Magic she still had access to. " _So you understand what we were talking about, right? There's a girl, Lily, and possibly others, whose souls are bound to Fate's. We don't know what's going to happen to them when Fate finally dies."_

" _Yes, I can see how that might be a concern. To be honest, I have not spent the requisite time analyzing the state of the Strings that Eclipsa created, and the Artificers corrupted, that you colloquially refer to as the 'Curse'. Consequently, I do not know whether her soul, or any others might be in His possession."_

" _Would it be possible for you to check?"_

" _I was thinking I might do that. It will be some time before an opportunity to do so arises, but it will be before I take leave of this Dimension, so you can be assured that I will contact you once I know the circumstances of those Souls and, if necessary, have retrieved them from Him."_

" _Thank you."_

" _Of course. It is a small thing to do for someone who has helped me so tremendously."_

Star snapped out of her fugue. "Alright. Mother contacted me. She's going to investigate, and contact me when she finds out what happened."

"She can just contact you, like that?"

"Apparently, until the Strings totally fade away, yeah."

"Huh."

Star looked up at Angie, who had a blank look on her face. "You get all that, Mrs. Diaz?"

"Is my boy safe?"

"He's safe."

"Then it doesn't matter."

Star chuckled. "Alright. I'll be back in a little while. I gotta report to my mom. In her words, I need to be properly 'debriefed' or whatever."

"Hold up!" Marco exclaimed.

Star walked up next to him. "What is it?"

Marco twisted himself around in bed to give Star a hug. It was rather awkward, given that Angie was apparently committed to the whole 'not letting go of Marco ever again' bit for at least the next few hours, but she managed to return the hug.

"Thank you, Star."

Star smiled.

* * *

Moon was sitting next to the throne, staring intently at the floor beneath it, when Star approached. "Hey mom."

Moon sighed. "How much of that power do you still have?"

Star tapped the magic. "A fair amount of it. Why?"

Moon magicked the doors shut so that no one else was in the room, and she activated the throne to move it back away from the floor, revealing the passage below. "Then can you repair that divot in the Nullstone? I am sure it was very impressive at the time, but you actually weakened the structural integrity of the tunnel when you were showing off to Fate."

"Ah. Uh, hang on."

Star walked down to where the divot was, and placed her hands on the stone, activating the Fate Magic. Moon's eyes widened as the stone slowly flowed into place, covering up the divot. "I suppose there is no chance of you getting to keep that power, is there? I imagine it would fortify Mewnie's political standing if we had a Demigod expecting to ascend to the throne."

Star rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the passage, allowing the throne to move back into position. "Geez, mom. That's pretty much exactly the reason why people shouldn't have that kind of power in the first place."

"I am only trying to think about the Kingdom, sweetie."

"… Anyways, that's sort of part of the deal. To completely kill off Fate, I have to give up this power, as Mother will also be giving up the portion of her power that allows her access to Fate Magic. If we don't do that, he gets to live, which means he gets to try to hurt more people."

"Fair enough," Moon said, throwing up her hands. She then sized up Star, a small smile forming on her lips. "It feels like you have gotten older, dear. Wiser."

Star blinked. "A few months ago, I don't think I could have ever done anything like this. Not just in terms of my literal magic, but also in terms of, well… everything else."

Moon glanced to the side. "Maybe. One thing I have learned as I have gotten older is that no one is ever truly static. People are much more the product of their immediate circumstances than they are any fundamental, irrevocable force within themselves." She looked directly at Star. "You rose to the challenge of finding a way to save Marco because you needed to, and because no one else could. That should not be taken as an undermining of how hard you worked, or the cleverness it required of you to succeed. Just that I think it is less surprising that you were able to do it than, well..."

Star sighed. "What you and everyone else thought of me when you first sent me to Earth?"

Moon looked slightly guilty. "Honey, I can not be the first person to tell you that you have always had issues with responsibility." She smiled. "It does seem like being there has had a tremendous impact on your growth as a princess. I see no reason not to have you return, once Marco has fully healed."

It hadn't even occurred to Star that not returning to Earth was an option. "I would very much like to go back."

Moon nodded. "Your father and I will make the arrangements."

Star nodded in return. "So… I do have something important I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

Star sat on one of the steps leading to the Throne. "I told you last night that all the Fate Strings in the universe are going to be destroyed."

"Yes. I do not understand the implications of that." Moon sat down next to Star.

"Well, there's a lot of things that are kind of bundled up in that, but the main one is that while those Strings remain, you're fated to be queen until I come of age, and I'm fated to be Queen afterwards. But the moment the Strings are gone, all of the… 'privilege', you might call it, which is effortlessly keeping us in power will be gone." She looked up at Moon. "Things won't change right away, but if there are any serious challenges to the Monarchy, they may prove much more difficult to deal with than they would have before."

Moon nodded. "I see." She stood up. "I will need to hold council with my advisers." She turned to Star. "You can sit in on that meeting if you wish, but if you have other things to deal with, I can simply relay your information to them. Basically: it will not 'create' new challenges to the Throne, but it will embolden any challenges that might exist?"

Star folded her arms. "I think if we're being strict with the nomenclature, it's more like those challenges will no longer be suppressed."

"Ah."

Star stood up. "I do have other things I need to deal with."

"Alright."

Star began to walk off.

"Star?"

Star turned back to Moon.

Moon smiled. "I cannot begin to tell you how proud of you I am. I want you to know that."

Star smiled.

* * *

Star was preparing to go visit Marco again, later in the evening, when Mother contacted her again, " _Miss Butterfly, is this a good time to speak?_ "

Star stumbled as she finished copying any important information from Eclipsa's journal; information that she wouldn't likely have access to once Moon confiscated it. " _I suppose so._ "

" _Excellent. One moment._ "

A portal opened itself up in Star's bedroom, through which appeared Mother, looking cheerful, but considerably less composed than she had in her previous appearance.

Star raised an eyebrow. "You doing alright?"

Mother brushed herself off. "Many of my duties were never intended to go on hiatus for such a protracted period of time. It has taken considerable effort to appropriately wrangle them."

"What did you find out about Lily?"

Mother smiled, and produced from within her clothing a small, glowing crimson orb. "I have given her a physical manifestation."

Star's eyes widened. "That's… Lily?"

"Well, child, she is dead. I do not know what form you would expect the non-corporeal soul of a deceased being to take, but I have difficulty imagining that you had considerable expectations to the contrary."

"I mean, we have, like, ghosts."

Mother narrowed her eyes slightly. "Those are somewhat different, semantically speaking. Ghosts are more like the image of Eclipsa that I projected to you, many days ago. They resemble their original soul in many respects, to a point that many Mortals sometimes perceive them to be indistinguishable from their original, but they are, as a matter of fact, a distinct entity. This, however," she said, holding up the orb, "is the original Lily." She looked directly at Star. "Your hypothesis was correct: she was indeed in the possession of Fate. I was able to discretely extract her from Him. I doubt He even noticed; He did not even seem to be aware of her presence. Not that I could blame him; it is exceedingly rare to find a Soul, detached from the body of its host, yet still fully intact. I do not know that he would implicitly understand what she was."

"Just her?"

Mother shook her head. "I scanned rather thoroughly. No other soul remained in his possession. Either he disposed of them long before now, or he never came into possession of them in the first place."

Star folded her arms. "Lily was the only one that Eclipsa kept alive well beyond her natural life expectancy. I wonder if that makes a difference."

Mother shrugged. "It very well might. I have yet to fully examine the nature of the Curse. It may be beyond my capabilities to do so before all traces of its existence fade away."

Star nodded. "So… What now?"

"I can release her into the aether, to join all the other departed souls of this world. That, at least, is within my capabilities."

"Why haven't you done that yet?"

"It occurred to me that perhaps the Princess and Future Queen of Mewnie might have something to say to an unfortunate soul who was once a citizen of her nation." Mother smiled coyly.

Star nodded, and placed her hand over the orb. " _Lily. My name is Star Butterfly, Princess of Mewnie. I've been told of you by having been recounted the story of your interactions with Eclipsa in the year before your death._

_To be honest, I'm not really sure what you want me to say, so I'm just going to say what I feel, and what I feel is that I think the relationship you shared with Eclipsa was wonderful. Eclipsa has had a very turbulent relationship with my kingdom, but one thing I can say for certain is that she loved you. Above all else, it's unambiguously clear to me that her affection for you was real―possibly the truest thing she ever knew._

_I say this because the circumstances of your life and your death were tragic, and I feel like maybe this constitutes some final comfort, before you finally move on. I don't know. I can't know. Maybe this is unwelcome to you. But I've been inspired by your story. When I become queen, I will make certain that no loving individuals of my kingdom ever have to suffer the prejudice that the two of you endured._

_I hope you find peace."_

Star pulled her hand back.

Mother held the orb up, and it slowly began to fade away, as though it were ashes being blown away. "Very well then. In time, you and I will no longer be in contact with each other. If, before that time, you uncover some other pressing concern that ought to be dealt with, please do not feel unwelcome to contact me."

Star nodded. "Will do."

* * *

"I don't know if it was the right thing to say to her, but I mean, I don't know there's anything right to say to someone who has died, you know?" Star said quietly, slowly pushing Marco to the door of the hospital.

He craned his head to look back at her. "I mean, if you mean it when you say you're going to make sure no one else has to suffer like they did, I feel like that has to be some kind of comfort."

"I hope so."

"Are we out of the hospital yet?"

"A few more meters."

The moment the crossed the threshold of the hospital doors, Marco jumped up from the wheelchair. "That's such a weird rule, that I have to be wheeled out like this."

"Liability reasons," Star said in a deadpan.

"I bet."

He folded his arms around his back. "So when am I going home?"

"As soon as your parents are finished packing."

Marco looked at Star meaningfully. "And… Are you coming with?"

Star smirked. "I thought you said you wanted to be apart for awhile?"

"Well, yeah, like in separate rooms. Doesn't mean I want to get rid of you entirely."

Star rolled her eyes. "My mom thinks you and Echo Creek have been a good influence on me. And… If it won't be too awkward to have me around..."

"Star, we spent the last month living out of the same room. Nothing could possibly get more awkward than that."

"Right."

He got a serious look on his face. "I definitely need time, now that I'm not imminently dying, to work out how I feel towards you. I've got… A few notions on that front, but I need to know what those notions mean when I'm not literally dependent on you just to live."

Star nodded. "I understand."

He looked nervous suddenly. "Having said that, though..."

"What?"

Without warning, Marco leaned in and kissed Star on the cheek for a brief moment.

Star blushed and clasped her cheek with her hand.

Marco crossed his arms, smiling. "You've at least earned that."

Star chuckled. "You're a lot more forward than I remember you being."

"Hey, I've already kissed you before. Now, it's like nothing!"

Star groaned. "The kiss that was awful and miserable?"

He shrugged. "So it can't get any worse than that, right?"

Star sighed.

"Anyways. I'm going to go help my mom and dad pack. See you when we're ready to go."

Star waved at him as he ran towards the palace.

Then, standing outside the hospital, she looked up into the evening sky.

The mosaic structure of the sky was still visible, even as most of the effects of the Curse had worn off by now.

Star blinked, and looked around.

The world kept right on moving.

The Strings of Fate were due to fade away entirely not long from now, and the world will keep moving.

Her stomach rumbled.

"… I wonder if I can convince Marco to make Nachos when we get back."


	80. Epilogue

Eclipsa, Queen of Mewnie pulled a hood over her face and walked away from the Castle.

Soon to be ex-Queen of Mewnie.

The people wouldn't find out what happened until at least morning. And even then, it would probably take months before the news fully propagated across the whole kingdom.

Even so, there wasn't much reason to stay.

There wasn't anything left for her anymore.

She'd removed from power anyone else in the government who had done anything even remotely as awful as what the Artificers had done, but she quickly found out that getting rid of bad people from positions of power leaves too few good people behind.

_Politics,_  Eclipsa thought to herself, chuckling at her own bad joke.

Politics wasn't the problem. A good Queen wouldn't have let those kinds of people get into power in the first place.

But her mother wasn't a good Queen.

And she could only barely qualify to be any better.

If she had been any better, she probably could have stopped the coup. Prevented it before it got this bad.

She glanced back as she heard a flame roar into life from one of the distant windows of the palace. "That can't possibly be necessary."

She turned back to face where she was going.

It didn't matter anymore.

Before she was to become the  _Exiled_  former Queen of Mewnie, she had one stop she wanted to make.

A Thatch Hut jutting out of the side of a hill.

When she arrived, well past midnight, she pulled her hood back, and knocked on the door.


	81. Final Remarks

First of all, I want to thank anyone who read through the entire story. I apologize if the Keyfabe 'Author's Notes' were ever confusing, but I like to think their purpose eventually became clear as we got closer to the end of the story.

I've very much enjoyed the process of writing this story. I think this year has been hard on a lot of people, myself included, and much as it has helped me keep mine, I hope reading this story has helped some of you keep hold of your sanity. Sometimes you need something that's just raw Id to enjoy. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, even if it sometimes takes us to some pretty fucking dark places.

I've seen a few questions pop up as this story has progressed, that I'm now comfortable giving answers to:

_What does it all mean?_ I'm deliberately not answering this question specifically. I can say that in the course of writing this story, there were a few core, concrete metaphors I hewed to when deciding how the story should progress, the function of the characters and how they were characterized/named/etc. But I'm very much an adherent of the "Death of the Author" Literary Theory, and I'm much happier to let people make their own interpretations about what the story means and what I'm trying to say with it than to lay down some absolute "here's what I meant" thesis. Obviously, I don't mind correcting factual confusions (i.e. people misunderstanding the actual text of the story) but in terms of interpretation, I'd prefer to stay as hands-off as possible.

_The end of the Story?_  As far as I am concerned, this is the end of the story. To my knowledge, I haven't left any major plot threads dangling or any major character arcs unresolved―at least not accidentally so. It's possible that I've left behind some major plot holes or inconsistencies (some of which have already been pointed out to me!), which is, of course, the risk one takes in writing a work of fiction ad-hoc. I'm not going to go back and make corrections unless it's something really egregious, and even then, I think I'd rather just let it be. I've had a lot of fun writing this story, but at this point, I'd like to move on to other stuff I'd like to be writing.

Again, thank you to anyone who stuck through the whole thing. Please leave a review so that other people know to check out this work (or steer clear of it, if you think it's bad!). If you have a specific question you want to address to me, please leave it in the comments of this story.


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